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SELECTED SERMONS AND 
ADDRESSES 




THE LATE 
REV. S. A. ORT, D. D., LL. D. 






SELECTED 

SERMONS AND 
ADDRESSES 



BY THE LATE 

SAMUEL ALFRED ORT, D. D., LL. D. 
w 

President of Wittenberg College for Nineteen Years; 

Also for Many Years Professor of Systematic Theology in 

Hamma Divinity School, Springfield, Ohio 



Issued by Some of His Devoted Friends and Admirers, 

as a Token of Appreciation of His 

Unusual Gifts and Virtues 



H. C. STAFFORD, Publisher 

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON 
For Sale by THE GERMAN LITERARY BOARD, Burlington, Iowa 



BXson 



Copyright 1914 
By H. C. STAFFORD 

Seattle, Washington 



JEC 1 1 1914 

©CI.A387908 



PREFACE 

THIS book is first of all a memorial. It is not a commercial 
project. The venture was begun because numerous friends 
and former pupils of Dr. Ort deplore the fact that he was never 
permitted to put his writings into permanent form. All that it 
has cost us of time, anxiety, and means, is gladly and freely 
given. The general desire for such a volume, and the value of 
the papers, addresses, sermons, etc., selected, make it evident that 
the cost is fully justified. 

The volume has great intrinsic value. The sermons and 
papers represent ripe scholarship of the best type and the most 
profound thought. The presentations of truth are clear and 
strong. Everyone can read them with profit. 

Great care was exercised in making these selections from a 
vast amount of material. Many of these articles have never been 
published in magazine or pamphlet form. The selections are quite 
typical of their author, and represent a wide range of thought. 
They reveal his power in Scripture, his trend of religious thought, 
his knowledge of and interest in human affairs, and bring a live 
message to preacher and layman alike. 

The family of Dr. Ort, together with the faculty of Hamma 
Divinity School, have heartily endorsed this publication, and have 
placed at our disposal the material from which the selections 
were made. Dr. Ort held a warm place in many hearts. He 
was loyally devoted to his Church and College, and gave freely 
of his time and strength to serve their interests. 

May this volume go forth as a true memorial of this great 
life. He deserves an abiding place in our thoughts. Why should 
we soon forget those who do faithful service ? May these pages, 
then, carry messages of the Way, the Truth, and the Life into 
many homes of the Church. 

Rev. H. C. Stafford. 
Seattle, Washington, 
July 25, 1914. 



A FOREWORD 

THE preparation of this volume for the press has been a labor 
of love. The motive in issuing it has been to honor the 
author's memory and to give to the world the rich fruitage of 
his thought and experience. Dr. Ort was not much disposed to 
the making of books, and seemed to have more or less aversion 
to the labor of preparing manuscripts for the printer. We often 
urged him to put his best thoughts on various themes into proper 
form for publication, and he always replied that he perhaps would 
do so some day ; but, as all his acquaintances are aware, sickness 
and death came to him before he could carry out his purpose. 

No doubt, too, his busy life, especially in the days of his 
greatest strength, precluded his commanding the time to prepare 
his manuscripts for the press. In his best days he was President 
of Wittenberg College for nineteen years ; then Professor of 
Systematic Theology in Hamma Divinity School ; at the same time 
he taught Psychology, Philosophy, Ethics and Theism in the 
College, and also spent much of his time and strength in going 
about among the churches preaching and delivering addresses. 
It is, therefore, little wonder he was unable to produce books. 
In his later years, when he was able to command some leisure, 
we fear that his physical strength had largely waned ; so that he 
had little disposition to undertake the task of careful and 
laborious writing. 

However, he left a valuable legacy of manuscripts in the 
form of sermons, addresses, and various papers, which have been 
made available for publication through the kindly consent of his 
children who are still living. These papers were put by them 
into the hands of the present Faculty of Hamma Divinity School 
and the publisher, the Rev. H. C. Stafford. At first it was Mr. 
Stafford's idea to gather together a volume of Dr. Ort's lectures 
as taken down in the class-room by his students; but on the 
discovery of many papers in Dr. Ort's hand, it was decided to 



6 Foreword 

give up this plan, and make a collection from his manuscripts. To 
have used all that were available would have made by far too 
bulky a volume. 

The selection of the present papers was made by Rev. Staf- 
ford, with the advice of the undersigned. He also had a large 
share in editing the manuscripts. However, for the most part, 
the editing of the papers was left to the undersigned at the request 
of both Mr. Stafford and Dr. Ort's family. 

The editorial work has been almost wholly technical — the 
kind of work that must be done by some one in order to prepare 
a manuscript for the printer. Had Dr. Ort prepared his work 
for the same purpose, he would, no doubt, have attended to these 
technical matters ; but, as the papers were written only for his 
own eye, a good deal of work naturally had to be done upon 
them. In a few cases we have felt it a duty to make slight 
changes in the verbiage ; also to supply what was lacking to make 
the logical connection, when a sheet or two of manuscript had 
been lost. However, we have not changed Dr. Ort's thought, 
nor have we made any material alterations in his style ; the book 
appears as his own mental and spiritual product, written in his 
own characteristic literary manner. Our task, though a necessary 
one, has been a humble one. 

We cannot close without paying our tribute to Dr. Ort's 
greatness of vision in dealing with the doctrines of the Chris- 
tian religion. Always orthodox and Biblical, he never seemed 
to feel that his thought was fettered or cramped by faithful 
adherence to the Bible doctrines and the exhibition of them in 
the standards and confessions of his Church. Note his compre- 
hensive view of the redemptive scheme through Jesus Christ; 
there is nothing contracted in such a view, embracing, as it does, 
the whole universe of matter and spirit in an immortal destiny. 
Note, too, his scopeful view of the person of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, in whom dwells all the fullness of God and all the 
potentialities of humanity and the material universe. It is in- 
spiring to read such great and all-comprehensive thoughts, and 
feel that they are included in the evangelical view of the doc- 
trines of our holy religion. 



Foreword 7 

As has been said, Dr. Ort was truly orthodox. In all the 
manuscripts we have examined, there has not been found a 
false or uncertain note. He had little regard for the rationalistic 
criticism of the Bible. He never lost his faith in the Book as 
the infallible rule of faith and practice. It will be seen that his 
numerous appeals to the Holy Scriptures are made on the as- 
sumption that they are the end of all argument, the final court 
of appeal. A man of rich religious experience, yet he never 
thought of putting the "Christian consciousness" above the Bible 
or on an equality with it. While he does not deal specifically 
with this subject in any of his manuscripts, he everywhere takes 
it for granted that Christian experience is produced through the 
Word of God, and is, in turn, to be tested, guided and enlarged 
by the Word of God. True, there are many doctrinal Loci that 
are not treated in this book, but everywhere the whole system 
of evangelical truth is taken for granted. The keynote of Dr. 
Ort's life and theology was "Jesus Only;" the regulative doc- 
trine of his doctrinal system was justification by faith; his formal 
principle, the Bible, the truly God-breathed Word. 

While it is true that some of his sermons are quite rhetorical, 
and do not attempt to be argumentative, they are always based 
on the evangelical view of the Bible and the plan of redemption. 
In many of his addresses, both philosophical and theological, he 
makes no special attempt at closely knit and elaborate logical 
discourse, but states his views categorically, and even with dog- 
matic abruptness ; yet, so far as we can see, he never struck a 
false note, never departed in the least from the evangelical system 
of faith. 

This posthumus volume will, we sincerely believe, be an in- 
spiration to the many friends and students of Dr. Ort, and will 
bear a true and helpful message wherever it goes. No one can 
read these sermons and papers without an enlargement of his 
mental and spiritual vision and an uplift of both feeling and 
faith. 

Leander S. Keyser. 
Hamma Divinity School, 

Wittenberg College, 
Springfield, Ohio. 



INTRODUCTION 

THE writer has been selected by the family of his deceased 
teacher and later colleague, to write the introduction to 
these selections from the writings of the late Rev. Samuel Alfred 
Ort, D. D., LL. D. When the news went forth that he had died 
at his home in this city, on January 6th, 1911, all who had known 
him well enough to form a correct estimate of his powers, knew 
that the Church had lost one of her most gifted leaders. The fact 
that a man of Dr. Ort's rare intellectual endowments had passed 
to the company of the patriarchs, apostles, saints and brethren 
with whom he had for years been associated in the work of the 
Church on earth, meant to all who had come under his guidance 
as teacher and preacher a sense of personal loss and bereavement. 
At the end of a long illness he had heard the "Well done, good 
and faithful servant, enter thou into the joys of thy Lord," and 
over his new-made grave — sensible of the Church's loss — men 
said in devout thankfulness for his life, "Blessed are the dead 
who die in the Lord." 

To the last his powers of mind were quite unimpaired, and 
his constantly approaching weakness did not seem to depress his 
exultation and hopefulness. Often during his last days, in suf- 
fering and daily growing weaker, he bore both weakness and 
suffering, not only with unswerving patience, but with an unfail- 
ing cheerfulness that astonished his friends. Throughout the 
long decay of his physical powers, he not only displayed the 
strong affection of a devoted husband and father that he was, but 
was also always interested in, and inquiring about the interests 
of the Church he loved and into the service of which so many 
years of his life had gone. 

To those who knew him, it need not be said that Dr. Ort 
was a man of unusual mental strength. Few men have been so 
well intellectually equipped for the work of teaching upon the 
most exalted themes of human consideration. His special 



10 Introduction 

intellecual gifts were philosophical. It was in philosophical study 
that he was most distinguished as a teacher, and nothing was 
more marked in his teaching of theology than his sense of the 
unity of knowledge. The mind for him was just the instrument 
for the unification of all the truth within man's reach. When he 
came to deal with the writings of men like Kant and Hegel, Von 
Hartman and Schopenhauer, Schleiermacher, Ritschl and 
Spencer, his mind was big enough to weigh them in its own 
scales and to be its own authority upon them. He had a noble 
enthusiasm for working in lofty fields of truth, understanding 
many of the great problems of human thinking and penetrating 
far into the processes of the human mind, impressing himself 
strongly on the young minds who came under his instruction. 

Dr. Ort was a man of strong faith, and the Christian facts 
became the prime realities of his life. The central and leading 
realities with him were the Incarnation of our Lord and His re- 
demptive work. Few men placed as much emphasis upon the 
principle of Justifying Faith. Around this he co-ordinated his 
theological thinking and teaching. Few men have had as much 
capacity as he to think a philosophical or theological subject 
through. He knew how to hold a profound problem in high 
thinking in the spheres of theology and philosophy before his 
mind in a strong grasp until he knew it and could describe it in 
all its details. To this capacity was added that of fine literary 
form. Few men could state such truth with more lucidity and 
simplicity that were always in evidence in his finest productions. 

Dr. Ort, too, had a versatile mind, being a fine mathema- 
tician as well as philosopher and theologian, with a fine adapta- 
bility for either, and all held in subordination to the great object 
of his life, the service of the Kingdom of God. It was the peculiar 
qualities of his mind, associated with a devout spirit, that made 
him, when at his best, both a teacher and preacher of great force 
and attractiveness. 

In the sphere of his work as a theologian, it should be said 
of Dr. Ort, that, with the passing of the years, and with his 
growing maturity, he came to be more and more attached to the 
great Lutheran system of evangelical truth. More and more, the 



Introduction 11 

writer may say from years of close association with him, he 
advanced to an appreciation of the depth and fullness and rich- 
ness of that apprehension of the Gospel set forth in the theological 
treasures of the church in which he had been born and baptized, 
and to the service of which he gave his powers of mind and 
body. 

The writer well recalls an incident of some years ago when 
he was giving much of his time and strength to a special study 
of the "Book of Concord." Several of us who had been his 
students, when all of us were younger, were in his company in the 
Seminary building. Taking from his table one of the well-worn 
volumes of Dr. Jacob's edition of that great storehouse of the- 
ology, he said to us in the familiar speech of earlier days, "Boys, 
the longer I live and study, the more assured I feel that in this 
book we have a system of theology so biblical and well stated 
that it needs no revision." It was all said with an earnestness 
and depth of appreciation that made a deep impression. 

The writer knew Dr. Ort for many years, coming first to 
know him in 1868, while he was teaching in the girls' seminary 
at Hagerstown, Maryland, conducted at that time by the late Dr. 
Charles Martin. During that year he preached frequently in the 
Lutheran church in one of the villages of Washington County, 
when the writer was a boy in that congregation. A few years 
later he became a student under him at Wittenberg College. Still 
later, and for years, he was closely associated with him in the work 
of the Church as a co-instructor and colleague in the theological 
seminary. 

He was made for fellowship and friendship. His humanity 
was ample and always easily accessible. There was about him as 
a man, a genial depth and simplicity of nature, a kindliness in eye 
and voice that made of him a most companionable man and 
teacher both admired and loved. Side by side the writer has 
lived with him for years, and a kinder, more considerate and de- 
voted husband and father in his own home he has not known. 

Dr. Ort lived and died a poor man, having devoted his fine 
gifts solely to the work of preacher and teacher. The writer has 
never heard him wish that his choice in life had been other than 



12 Introduction 

it was. His devotion to the Church was deep and disinterested. 
Now that he has gone to be forever with the Lord, what right 
minded man who has a proper estimate of the relative importance 
of things in this life, will doubt the wisdom of his choice of a 
vocation, that he devoted his strong powers to the great work of 
a preacher of Christ's Gospel and the training of the youth of the 
land in the years when they are receptive and called to choose 
in the great concerns of human selection. 

He was more than an eloquent preacher and a fine teacher. 
Behind his office, and shown in all his official and private inter- 
course with men, was the spirit of a dignified, but humble 
Christian who felt in his own experience the power of the truth 
he taught. The sacred science of divine things was his joy and 
delight. Its great realities were the foundation of his intellectual, 
moral and spiritual life. In the Gospel he found the philosophy 
that controlled his thinking, and the inspiration for the Church 
and the world. He had but little patience with men who are 
running to and fro after sociological and other fads to settle 
grave problems. The solvent of such problems of current interest 
he found in the Gospel which came down from heaven. 

The demand upon his time as preacher, teacher and adminis- 
trator of a college, left to this man but little opportunity for 
authorship. But what has been collected from his writings for 
this volume furnishes an idea of what he might have done, had 
his life been less strenuous, and his opportunity for meditation 
and writing greater. 

He was a gift from God to the Church in a perplexed and 
trying time. Many who knew Dr. Ort when he lived will be long 
inspired as they cherish the memory of his laborious, disinter- 
ested and truly Christian faith. 

David H. Bauslin. 

Hamma Divinity School, 
Springfield, Ohio, 
July, 1914. 



CONTENTS 

I 

SERMONS page 

Jesus Only 17 

The Name Above Every Name 28 

The Preaching of Christ Crucified 37 

The Only Source of Life 46 

The Church of the Living God 50 

The Christian's Vocation 60 

Proving Oneself 70 

Gratitude and Courage 79 

II 
DOCTRINAL DISCUSSIONS 

Justifying Faith 91 

What Is Offered and Conferred In Grace 99 

Destiny of the Physical 106 

The Lutheran Church and the Augsburg Confession . . 115 

Changing a Confession 131 

The Ground and Hope of Lutheran Unity 135 

Pietism .141 



III 
BACCALAUREATE SERMONS 

The Twentieth Century — A Question 153 

The Problem of Human Life 164 

Life's True Ideal 178 

The Greatest Need 186 



14 Contents 

IV 

LECTURES page 

Martin Luther 205 

Philip Melanchthon 225 

Gustavus Adolphus 235 

V 
OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 

The Supremacy of the Moral 259 

Why You Are Here 263 

Your Life Plan 269 

Current Thought — Scientific and Ethical 276 

Agnosko — I Don't Know 282 

The Great Problem 292 



VI 
BIOGRAPHY AND TRIBUTES 

Biographical Sketch 303 

Tributes 306 



I 

SERMONS 



I 

SERMONS 



JESUS ONLY 

"And they saw no man save Jesus only." — Matt, xvii: 8. 

THE favored three disciples are upon the Mount of Trans- 
figuration. The person of their Master has taken on an 
appearance of splendor beyond the brightness of the noonday 
sun. Moses and Elias, representatives of the legal and prophetic 
times, have come into full view. They commune with Christ and 
talk about His death, which should take place at Jerusalem. 
From the midst of the cloud of encircling glory, there comes a 
voice, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 
Instantly the scene vanishes, and of that splendid company Jesus 
only remains. 

One can easily perceive who was the chief figure in this 
heavenly display. Moses and Elias are illustrious souls, most 
distinguished actors on a former stage, but they are not the com- 
manding objects of this exhibition and take a subordinate place. 
Their glory is not the dazzling brilliance of the occasion. Their 
presence does not furnish the unspeakable grandeur of the scene. 
It is not of themselves they speak, nor of what they accomplished. 
They veil their honors before Him who is greater than they, and 
manifest their absorbing interest in His person by talking only of 
that solemn event which should end His life of toil and humilia- 
tion. They do obedience to Jesus and recognize Him as the 
true lawgiver and prophet. Before this hour the disciples 



18 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

may have thought Moses and Elias to be equal in authority 
and worthy of equal reverence with their Master. But now 
they see these illustrious souls acknowledging their subjection 
to Him, and that the glory which crowns their person is but the 
reflection of His matchless splendor. Suddenly the visitors from 
the spirit world disappear, the bright cloud is unseen, and there 
is no man with them save Jesus only. 

This, then, is my theme, "Jesus Only." In order that I may 
fix it well in your hearts and minds, allow me to offer two obser- 
vations : 

First, Jesus only is the life and power of the Gospel; 

Second, Jesus only is the climax of humanity and human 
destiny. 

I 

Jesus only is the life and power of the Gospel. 

There are two ways of viewing the Gospel. The one takes 
it as the apprehension of truth on the part of a great mind, and 
the struggling of a master spirit after what is the truest and 
highest living. This makes the relation between Jesus and the 
Gospel to be that which the poet bears to his poem, or the phil- 
osopher to his philosophy. Either one may be taken separate 
from the author. Each has a life and a reality of its own. John 
Milton and "Paradise Lost" sustain the relation of poet and 
poem. But the poem can be read and studied apart from any 
special thought of its author. It has meaning and existence in- 
dependent of the mind which wrought it out. Milton himself is 
not the substance of what he wrote. Take any work in natural 
science, such as Botany. This is an analysis and classification of 
the species and genera in the vegetable kingdom. The scientific 
truths involved are entirely distinct from the mind which per- 
formed the difficult task of giving an orderly explanation of 
plants and flowers. Whatever excellence there is in the science 
of botany, it is independent of the human mind. The principles 
of this science do not exist, and are not in force because a certain 
scholar devised the scheme of classification. These have their 
reality outside of every invention which the mind of man can 
make. 



Jesus Only 19 

The same is true with respect to any mechanical contrivance, 
as, for example, the steam engine. This wonderful machine is 
not so bound up in the person and character of the inventor that 
it cannot exist without him. The inventor died long ago, and 
nothing more has been seen of him in the world ; but the applica- 
tion of steam in the useful arts still continues. The engine lives 
on; others add improvements and increase its power; the latest 
effort makes it better than any preceding one had left it. An 
intimate relation, no doubt, exists between the producer and the 
thing produced, but these may be separated without destroying 
either the one or the other. 

This, we are told by a certain class of critics and religionists, 
is true of Jesus and the Gospel. The one is to be taken for what 
He is in Himself, and the other is to be reckoned according to 
its own intrinsic merits. The Gospel has life and power, but 
these belong exclusively to itself and may be intensified by the 
improvements of enlightened reason. Jesus takes his place in 
history as one among many, perhaps the tallest, and His teach- 
ings are to be classed among those of other religious guides, on 
all of which the ingenuity of man is to exercise itself to bring 
forth that perfect religion whose power will banish every form 
of evil from the earth. 

Jesus, it is affirmed by these thinkers, is dead, but that is 
immaterial. His religion is no more dependent on Him for con- 
tinuance in the world than is the philosophy of Plato on the 
philosopher himself. With those who are teaching this view, it 
is not "Jesus Only." 

The other view, and we believe the true one, regards Christ 
and His Gospel as inseparable. Their life and power are iden- 
tical. The force of this apprehension becomes quite plain when 
we raise the question : "Could the Gospel have been, under any 
condition, without Christ ?" A people called the Jews might have 
been without a man called Abraham. The children of Israel 
could have been brought out of Egypt and led to the promised 
land by somebody else than Moses. The law could have been 
given on Sinai, and the whole ceremonial economy put into 
practice, had the Hebrew babe cast on the bosom of the Nile 



20 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

perished. The triumph on Carmel could have been just as grand 
had Elijah never been born. The Old Testament dispensation 
would have existed just as it did, had none of those men who were 
the principal agents in its development ever lived. The religion 
of the decalogue, and the typical offerings were in no sense de- 
pendent for their existence on either patriarch or prophet. 
Moses and Elias may vanish from the human stage, but the 
religious drama in which they played so conspicuous a part, still 
goes on. Their life is not its life, and their power is not its 
power over the hearts and consciences of men. It made their 
character and history, but they did not make it what it was. It 
was before them, and not they before it. It was the soul of their 
religious experience, the fore-runner of its existence. And now, 
can we speak after this fashion of Jesus and His religion? Is 
there any sense in which the Gospel is independent of Christ? 
Suppose He had never existed, would there today be such a 
fact as Christianity? 

What is the Gospel? Is it a system of rules for right living? 
Is it a religious philosophy? Is it a set of moral truths? It is 
none of these. The Gospel is a person, and the life of that person. 
Take these away, and how much is there left? What an empty 
something remains? Nay, rather, what an utter nothing? I 
grant there may be remnants of a few moral truths pointing to 
our duties to one another and to God. But of the reality we call 
the Gospel, after the abstraction of Jesus and His life, what is 
left for us? No! I will not grant that even anything remains. 
Take those moral precepts just mentioned. In whom do we find 
them realized ? Whose life exhibits them to us in their full beauty 
and power? Who shows us how to love our neighbor as our- 
selves? Who proves and embodies the Golden Rule? Who 
unveils to the human heart the loveliness of those moral virtues 
which glorify the perfect character? It is Jesus Only. 

And He does all this, not by any wise sayings and profound 
teachings, but by His person and life. When we wish to know 
what righteousness is, we need only look at His character and 
there we see it — not in the form of a bald abstraction, but in the 
reality of a living power. When we desire to understand what 



Jesus Only 21 

holiness is, we need only fix our eyes on His person to observe 
what the philosophies and the wisest sayings of men never could 
show us. Jesus is the divine expression of holiness. And if we 
wish to learn what meekness is, or patience and good will, we 
must take note of His life. Here these high virtues are radiant 
in the perfect light. 

The Gospel is not a discourse about the truth. It is the 
truth. The Gospel is not a guide-book showing the way. It is the 
way. The Gospel is not a treatise on the life. It is the life. 
Likewise, Jesus is not merely a teacher of the truth, but He is 
the truth. He is not merely a leader of the way, but He is the 
way. He is not only an expounder of the life, but He is the life. 
"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." 

It is easy to perceive, therefore, that between Jesus and the 
Gospel there is an actual oneness. The two are so intimate in 
their connection that no separation of them can be made. The 
person and life of the Nazarene constitute the Gospel. 

I am not speaking of the book of the New Testament. That 
is merely a record of the history of the divine person and life; 
I am speaking of that which is independent of manuscripts and 
books. Where do we find the Gospel? Only in Jesus. There 
is no other one who has embodied it in his history. The Apostles 
did not, eminent as some of them were. No man has ever thought 
that either Paul or Peter were the Gospel, or that in their person 
and life it first found its reality. On the other hand, every one 
must know, that, until Jesus came, the Gospel, as we have it, was 
unknown, and the moment He appeared it was here. Observe 
how the New Testament always speaks of Christ and the Gospel, 
and how evident it makes the fact that the religion of Jesus is 
not what He believed, or had learned as true, but what He is 
himself. John declares that in Jesus is life, and the life is the 
light of man. Christ Himself says, "I am the resurrection and 
the life. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and 
they are life." 

To divorce Jesus from His religion is to destroy it utterly, 
and this means that Christianity without Christ is simply an 
impossibility. What is it that makes the Gospel so quickening, 



22 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

so full of life, while other religions are dead? That it has such 
might is evident. It is affirmed to be the power of God unto 
salvation. The Gospel certainly is power. It has so proven 
itself. It reaches the hearts of men. It moves their consciences. 
It stirs their souls. It brings out the penitential tear. It pros- 
trates the sinner in humble confession before God. What a 
mighty influence it wielded over Paul ! How it turned him from 
an enemy of the Cross to a proclaimer of its glory ! How it 
spurred him on in his missionary toils over lands, across seas, 
through great cities, and among the dangers of heathendom! 
How it animated his whole life, and made him to be a very angel 
of light! 

Talk about power ! What has swayed the consciences of men 
like the Gospel ? What has cleaved asunder the darkness of sin ? 
What has swept back the masses of heathenism? What has 
lifted up the whole human family, and made a new era of better 
achievements and better work and happier years than any of the 
pagan past? What mighty power is it which has proven itself 
an over-match for all the evil forces, and quickened into new life 
millions of souls ? The Gospel. And this is a living power. Not 
the power of the storm or sea, nor human strength and wisdom, 
but the power of Him who calmed the wild waves ; the power 
of Him who called Lazarus from the grave; the power 
of Him who gave peace to the troubled, sinful woman who 
bathed His feet with her tears. It is the living, almighty power 
of Jesus and Jesus only. Take Him away and the Gospel would 
be the weakest, most miserable failure of which men could con- 
ceive. 

But it is Jesus only, not human reason, that is the way, the 
truth and the life. It is Jesus only, not the theologies of men, nor 
the deep thoughts of the human mind, that is the life and power 
of Christianity. Sweep away all expositions of men, all 
creeds, all patriarchs, prophets and apostles, still Jesus and His 
Gospel remain. There is still the same life and power, the same 
love, the same resurrection, the same Jesus able to save unto the 
uttermost. 



Jesus Only 23 

II 

Again, Jesus only is the climax of humanity and human 
destiny. 

Man has a climax. The lion which passes his life mainly in 
watching for his prey, has no goal beyond the eating of flesh. 
The beaver, which from generation to generation builds his dam 
with the same skill, never rises to a higher sphere. Yonder eagle 
which builds its nest on the highest point in the craggy rock, is 
still the same eagle from one age to another. In these realms 
there is no development, no mounting from the lower to the 
higher. It is the same flapping of the wings, the same flight, the 
same life. The lion, the beaver, the eagle make for themselves 
no history. 

On the other hand, man has a goal. He weaves for himself 
a history. By examining his thoughts during these thousands 
of years, we find among them many of every age which are 
reflections of a better time coming and a happier lot. While there 
has been the consciousness of serious imperfections clinging to 
his life, still, at the same time, there has been the expectation of 
a day when he will have wiped out blemishes from his character, 
and have attained the highest summit of true manhood. Among 
the creations of his imagination is to be found the figure of the 
Ideal Man. The ideal is the conception of human nature, with- 
out the slightest mark of frailty or blot of sin. It is the perfect 
man — man as he wants to be, and ought to be. 

But in the present case, what ought to be is not what might 
have been or will be, but what is. Most of the conceptions, the 
ideal creations of the human mind, do not find their counterpart 
in the existence of a real, living object. But the conception of a 
faultless, sinless man has found expression. It is not a sketch of 
the imagination. It exists in a reality. The perfect man lives, 
and this man is Jesus Christ. 

We read in God's Book that Adam was a faultless man. He 
was created in the divine image. This ' constituted his manhood, 
and formed that excellence which marked him above every other 
creature on the earth. There was no defect ; he was without fault 



24 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

or blemish — perfect. But Adam abandoned his innocence. The 
beautiful image of God in him was disfigured, broken, lost. The 
glory of his person was sadly marred, and the goodness of his 
life blotted all over with sin. Nevertheless, the ideal man exists, 
and he exists not as a creature of the imagination, but as a living 
person. He is God's expression of highest manhood and human 
excellence. He is God's Masterpiece. There is no inequality 
between the idea and the object corresponding to this idea. The 
real person is the exact expression of the ideal conception. 

In the case of the human artist, this is not the fact. He puts 
on canvas the picture in his soul, but the picture in his soul is 
superior to the one he has painted with his brush. The figure 
which the sculptor has carved in marble may be admirable, the 
very triumph of artistic genius, but the figure which was in his 
mind and was the model after which he carved, is greater and 
better than what you see on the polished stone. The real does 
not match the ideal. There is still room for improvement. It 
is possible for some artist in some age of the world to excel the 
sublimest work of any painter or sculptor of the past. 

We cannot, however, say this of Jesus Christ. God has 
exercised infinite wisdom and almighty power, shall I not say, 
in their highest reach? to produce this man. In Him there is no 
difference between what is possible to be, and what actually is. 
God has expressed His idea of the perfect man in Jesus Christ, 
not approximately, but exactly and most grandly. There can be 
no advance on this effort, no improvement. The highest idea 
of something which God has, is that which is most like Himself. 
Jesus is most like God. He is the divinest man who can exist. 
He embodies in Himself the highest possible good. He is the 
manliest man who ever could be. You may picture a most happy 
state for the race sometime in the future, you may imagine the 
very highest type of human development and glory ; but nowhere 
in the ages to come will there be a time when any one of the race 
will have gone beyond Jesus. He is- the most God-like man. 
With Him, the race in its upward growth must stop. Beyond 
His greatness and splendor no one can go. 



Jesus Only 25 

Take, if you please, a few particulars. There is no attribute 
so much admired as love; there is none more beautiful or grand. 
If you and I were to conceive of the noblest, greatest and best 
man who could exist, we would think of one who is the very 
embodiment of love, and whose life is love, simply giving out 
continually in blessed deeds and holy work. God is love. This is 
the grandeur of His being, the glory which enlightens this dwell- 
ing place. The unapproachable light of the eternal ages is the 
glory of infinite love. The infinite beauty of God is the beauty 
of love; the infinite righteousness of God is the righteousness of 
love; the infinite holiness of God is the holiness of love; the 
infinite mercy of God is the mercy of love. There is nothing 
greater than this. Whatever creature of God, therefore, comes 
nearest to Him in love is most like Him. He is the noblest, the 
grandest, the loftiest character in the reach of attainments. He 
stands at the climax. 

Is not Christ Jesus the very man whom I am describing ? Is 
not His life the life of love? Is not His glory so transcendant 
in power, the glory of love? Does love show itself in Him in 
meagre degree ? Is it weak, changeable, and fitful in its motions ? 
Who that is flesh of our flesh ever loved as He loves — so truly, 
so deeply, with such unflinching devotion, with equal tender 
sympathy? Who ever fulfilled that first and greatest of all the 
commandments, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy 
whole being," as He does? Who ever gave obedience to that 
other command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," in its 
widest comprehension, as He has done and is still doing? Who 
ever has consecrated his whole life in the doing of good, like 
Jesus? Who ever has taken into his company the guilty sinner 
and forgiven the wretched penitent, like Jesus? If thou knowest 
any other, speak his name. I pause for the revelation. None! 

Then I proceed. Peter, His own disciple, denies Him and 
repeats his denial with an oath; but Jesus looks at him — it 
is the look of love. Peter never knew until that moment how 
much his Master loved him, and how much more tenderly He 
loved him than did father or mother. He then learned that Jesus 
is love. 



26 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

But I must take you to Pilate's Hall. The Governor in his 
official robe is there; the holy priest is there. In their midst 
stands Jesus. His accusers revile Him, but He reviles not again ; 
they strike Him, but no frown gathers on His brow; they insult 
Him with vile speech and mock Him in contempt, but He opens 
not His mouth. Behold the man ! He has on His head a crown 
of thorns ; He wears a purple robe placed on Him in mockery ; 
they have tried to make Him an object of meanest contempt. 
They mock Him and fling their jeers in His face. But who is 
the man in that awful scene? Who stands there in the dignity 
of royal manhood? Who, in the shame of that hour, shows Him- 
self to be the Prince of Men? Jesus. 

Put on Him, if you will, the scarlet robe of scorn ; place on 
His head the crown of thorns; strike Him in the face and beat 
Him until His visage is sadly marred, and you have made Plim, 
as you think, an object of disgust; still Jesus is the manliest man 
who ever walked the earth. His bearing is the noblest ; His pres- 
ence the most inspiring ; His look the most animating ; His dignity 
the most royal and He Himself the loveliest of Adam's race. 

And if down there in Pilate's Hall, in the depths of shame, 
He shows himself the greatest man on whom the sun has ever 
shined, oh, what must He not be up yonder at God's right hand ! 

It is said that Diogenes, the cynical philosopher, went 
through the streets of Athens looking for a man, but in vain. 
The man whom he was seeking was the one who would express 
exactly his idea of what the people of this world ought to be. 
Were Diogenes here, I could tell him where he could see the 
man who immeasurably more than fills the highest conception of 
a perfect humanity. I would show him the man of Nazareth. I 
would say, "Look at Him as the winds and waves obey His word. 
Look at Him as He stands at the grave of Lazarus, and calls 
back the dead to life." I would say, "Behold Him in His sublime 
appearing in Herod's court and Pilate's hall; and look at Him 
on the Cross, and there see Jesus the man of men." I would take 
him to Joseph's tomb, and there show him the same Jesus coming 
forth from the sealed grave, humanity's first-born from the dead. 

I would take him to the top of Olivet, that he might see the 



Jesus Only 27 

risen One caught up into the clouds of heaven. I would put 
him beside the dying Stephen, and show him the ascended Jesus 
at the right hand of the Majesty on High, clothed with all power 
and great glory. And then, I would say to him, "This is the man 
for whom thou lookest. This is the man who never thought an 
evil thought, or did an evil deed; whose character is without a 
stain ; whose life is blameless, and who Himself is the greatest 
expression of love. This is the man who is thy climax. Better 
than He thou never canst be. Purer than He it is impossible 
for thee to become. Lovelier than He thou art not able to appear. 
Higher, thou canst not reach. He is at the summit of thy 
loftiest manhood. He is the measure of thy immortality. 



THE NAME ABOVE EVERY NAME 

"Wherefore, God hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name 
which is above every name." — Phil, ii: 4. 

THE person of whom the Apostle here speaks is Jesus. The 
fact to which he alludes is His ascension. While the Savior 
was yet with His disciples, He several times intimated that He 
would shortly be parted from them. In the parable of the noble- 
man going into a far country to receive a kingdom, we have an 
allusion of this kind ; and also in the familiar saying, "I go to 
prepare a place for you, that where I am, there ye may be also." 
When the resurrection had taken place and the Savior had ap- 
peared to Mary, He said, "Touch me not, for I have not yet 
ascended to my Father." During many days afterward, He made 
repeated manifestations of Himself to His disciples. 

In this wise, they were forcibly assured that their Master, 
who had been put to death on the Cross, was with them again. 
So deeply were they impressed with the fact of His living pres- 
ence, that the fondest expectations were awakened in their hearts, 
and they began to inquire of Him, "Wilt Thou at this time restore 
again the kingdom of Israel?" 

At the end of these forty days, He led them to Mount Olivet, 
just outside the city of Jerusalem, and there, having breathed on 
them His blessing, was taken up before them, while a cloud re- 
ceived Him out of their sight. "As they looked steadfastly 
toward heaven, behold two men stood by them in white apparel, 
and said, 'Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven ? 
This same Jesus who is taken up from you shall so come in like 
manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.' " 

Just what transpired beyond the cloud, the sacred writer has 
not stated, but we may well conjecture, that it was a scene grand, 
beyond the power of the human mind to conceive. The Son of 



The Name Above Every Name 29 

God had been absent, in a world of sin; He had endured the 
shame of the Cross, and was now returning to the bosom of the 
Father, the Mighty Conqueror of death and the grave. All 
heaven is moved. The Captain of our salvation is approaching 
the Celestial City, leading captivity captive. As He draws near, 
thousands of angels receive Him with the jubilant shout, "Lift 
up your heads, O, ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting 
doors, and the king of glory shall come in." From within is heard 
the inquiry, "Who is this king of glory?" The response goes up 
from the vast multitude, "The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, 
mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O, ye gates, even lift them 
up, ye everlasting doors, and the king of glory shall come in." 
Again the inquiry is heard, "Who is this king of glory?" Again 
the shout goes up, "The Lord of Hosts, He is the king of glory." 

It was an illustrious day in the heavenly world. Previously 
there had been great occasions, but none to equal the present one 
in grandeur. When the work of creation was finished, and 
all the sons of God shouted together for joy, in celebration of the 
glorious event, it was a memorable event in the annals of heaven. 
When the prince of angels lifted his hand against Jehovah, and 
dared to resist the Almighty, and for his rebellion was cast down 
from the celestial heights, it was a notable day in the spirit world. 
And when at last the Son of God descended from heaven, and 
dwelt in human flesh it was to the principalities and powers of 
heaven, a mighty occasion. But vastly grander was the day, when, 
having conquered the prince of darkness, and robbed the grave of 
its victory, He entered the eternal city in the greatness of His 
strength, mighty to save. It was indeed the high jubilee time of 
the ages. Then the harpers tuned their harps anew, and the 
singers, with voices loud as mighty thunders, shouted, "Bless- 
ing and honor, and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth upon 
the throne and unto the Lamb forever." 

This leads me to ask your attention to some words about 
the glory of the Lord's exaltation. Two thoughts will help us 
to gain at least a faint conception of its distinguished character : 
First, the depth from which He was raised. Second, the heighth 
to which He was exalted. 



30 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

I 

The depth from which He was raised. 

In order that we may have a right impression of the lowli- 
ness of Christ's estate on earth, we must bear in mind who He 
was. One of the Gospels describes Him as the person who "in 
the beginning was with God, and was God, by whom all things 
were made." In another place He is represented as the "bright- 
ness of the Father's glory, and the express image of His person, 
in whom are hid the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." By 
one of the prophets He is described as, "Wonderful, Counsellor, 
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." 
By one of the apostles He is styled, "the image of the invisible 
God, the Creator of all things in heaven and earth, visible and 
invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities 
or powers." In these Scriptures the dignity of His person, as well 
as the excellence of His nature, is distinctly announced. It is 
the divine glory which is His rightful possession. 

In the light of this fact His condescension is, indeed, remark- 
able. The only begotten of the Father became flesh and dwelt 
among us. He made himself of no reputation. In His advent 
He observed the most humble manner. There was no pomp or 
parade of wealth, such as is common with the great ones of the 
earth, when to them a child is born. It was amidst simple sur- 
roundings in a retired village, and still more, in a humble inn. 
Without the trumpet's sound and the compliments of kings, He 
first showed Himself to the world. Throughout His life of thirty- 
three years the splendors of the Deity were veiled. While He 
asserted on many important occasions His divinity, and, in His 
teachings and by His works evidenced Himself the God of 
Heaven, still the full glory of His person was concealed from the 
sight of men. Only once, and then to a chosen few on the Mount 
of Transfiguration, did He show forth something of the fullness 
of the brightness of His Godhead, and make Himself to be of 
reputation. 

During His ministerial course He appeared as a servant, and 
endured the hateful opposition of His would-be masters. He 
was not in the world to be ministered unto, but to minister to all 



The Name Above Every Name 31 

classes — the needy, the sick, the poor, the suffering, the weary, 
the heavy laden. Last of all He became obedient to death, even 
the death of the Cross. It was a shameful end with which He 
met. "He came to His own, and His own received Him not." 
He was cast out, despised and rejected. He was charged 
with the greatest offense, though He always went about doing 
good. He was insulted and spit upon, beaten and condemned. 
He was taken to Golgotha, the death-place of murderers, and there 
hung on a cross between two thieves. While His agony was most 
intense, He was jeered at and crucified with wicked hands. To 
see the depth of this humiliation, we must think how far from 
God sin is ; how unlike Deity it is ; that it is everlastingly against 
Him, and is the essence of all wickedness and corruption. At the 
same time we must remember who it was that assumed the 
fashion of the sinful man, that kept company with publicans, and 
sympathized with sinners ; was persecuted, tempted, betrayed, 
and bore the shame of the accursed tree. Only then can we begin 
to understand how low He stooped ; what was the depth of that 
abasement He experienced while dwelling in the flesh. From 
such deep humiliation God raised up Jesus, far above all princi- 
palities and powers, and might and dominion. 

II 

The heighth to which He was raised. 

In the world beyond, it is the clear intimation of Scripture, 
there are various orders of being. These are wonderful in 
power and glorious in excellence. They excel in strength and 
attain the dignity of gods in wisdom. Their greatness rises 
immeasurably beyond that of any people on earth, and their 
rulers sit invested with a glory which far transcends the most 
brilliant splendor of earthly monarchs. Higher than these hath 
God exalted Christ. "For unto which of the angels said He at 
any time, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten Thee ? When 
He bringeth in the first-born, He saith, and let all the angels of 
God worship Him. And of the angels He saith, Who maketh 
His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire. But unto 
the Son He saith, Thy throne O God, is forever and ever." 



32 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

There have been distinguished names among men; some 
noted for wisdom, some for knowledge, some for power. There 
have been names at whose mention the foundations of the world 
have shaken, millions have raised the shout of loudest acclaim, 
and other millions have quaked with fear ; names which are taken 
as the embodiment of all earthly greatness, and around which 
encircles a halo of illustrious glory. And, no doubt, in the angelic 
world, there are names which hold entranced the powers of all 
heaven ; names venerated and lauded to the skies ; names whose 
very sound carries with it a peculiar charm; names which tell 
of extensive exploits, famous deeds, surpassing wisdom, and 
amazing knowledge. 

And yet, far above every name that is mentioned, not only 
in this world, but in that which is to come, God has exalted the 
name of the lowly Nazarene. He has indeed given Him a name 
which is above every name. He has distinguished Him pre- 
eminently. This He has done in several ways. 

First, God has assigned to Him the office of Mediator. 
This in itself is a notable position, and crowns Him who fills it 
with a most illustrious distinction. To all others, this dignity 
has been denied. However lofty Gabriel may be, whatever honor 
he may have won among the angelic orders, still he could in no- 
wise be suitable to serve as daysman, nor could he ever aspire 
amid the splendor of his achievement, to mediate between the 
holy God and a wicked world. Even though he stands at the head 
of the heavenly legions, and shines with dazzling brightness 
among the stars of the eternal firmament, yet God has chosen 
Another, who was made a little lower than the angels for the 
suffering of death, and has crowned Him with the honor of 
Mediator in the moral universe. And this is the name which He 
now bears ; a name which no other, not even the Father himself, 
could wear; a name which ever magnifies Him before the holy 
angels and the spirits of just men made perfect. 

But, secondly, God has also called Him by another name, 
even more peculiar and significant. When the angels appeared 
to Joseph, the husband of Mary, he said, "Thou shalt call His 
name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins." 



The Name Above Every Name 33 

"Jesus, the name that calms our fears, 

That bids our sorrows cease, 

'Tis music in the sinner's ears, 

'Tis life and health and peace. 

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds, 

In a believer's ear! 
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, 

And drives away his fear." 

Jesus the dearest, sweetest, grandest name, this is the name 
which God gave to His only begotten Son. It is above every 
name. There is none so precious, none so great. It is the name 
which justice honors; the name in which mercy takes highest 
delight; the name which eternal love rejoices to glorify. It 
attracts universal attention. It is heard with the holiest joy by 
the sinful and perishing. It interests with deepest thought the 
seraphic companies of heaven. It is the theme of that mighty 
anthem of praise whose highest strain is : "Unto Him who loved 
us, and washed us from our sins in His blood, and hath made us 
kings and priests unto God and His Father, to Him be glory and 
dominion forever and ever." 

But the Scriptures further describe the exaltation of Christ 
by saying, "God set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly 
places." It is the common understanding of all times that the 
right hand is the symbol of preference. Long ago, when Isaac 
had grown old and would bless his sons, it was his choice to have 
the elder on his right hand, and the younger on his left, because 
he meant the greatest blessing for the first-born. Likewise, when 
mention is made of standing at God's right hand, as when it is 
said, "the righteous shall appear on the right, and the wicked on 
the left" — the divine preference is tendered. So, also, we under- 
stand that setting Christ on the right hand of God signifies the 
highest glory. It is accounted a rare privilege, a higher honor 
to be admitted into the presence of kings, and to sit with them 
at their table. But all such royal notice is nothing in comparison 
with the exalted honor of standing in the presence of the Great 
King, and being seated at His own right hand. The honor, hence, 
which God has bestowed on the crucified Nazarene, in raising 



34 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

Him to a seat at His own right hand, outreaches the lofty dis- 
tinction of the Archangel who dwells at the very foot of God's 
throne. Jesus stands, not before the throne a humble servant of 
the Most High, but He has been given a seat at the right hand 
of the Majesty in the heavens. His happiness is infinitely com- 
plete. He holds a place that is immeasurably nearer the great 
Father than angels can occupy. He is ever in the full blaze of 
the divine light, and imbibes, as no other can, the fullness of 
joy and the pleasures that are at God's right hand forevermore. 

But the right hand of God is also an emblem of authority. 
This is the general idea suggested when hands and arms are 
attributed to God, since it is with these that our strength is mainly 
exerted. The right hand is more commonly used, and is a more 
powerful instrument than the left. The session of our Savior 
at the right hand of God signifies that God has exalted Him to 
authority and dominion. "Hereafter," said Christ to the Jewish 
council, "shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand 
of power." The Psalmist speaks of the same fact on this wise, 
"The Lord said unto my Lord, sit Thou on my right hand, until 
I make thine enemies Thy footstool." Daniel in his night vision 
thus describes the scene, "Behold, one like the Son of man came 
with the clouds of heaven, and drew near to the ancient of days. 
And there was given Him dominion and glory and a kingdom 
that all people and nations should serve. His dominion is an 
everlasting dominion that shall not pass away." And the Savior 
Himself, previous to His ascension, informed His disciples : "All 
power is give unto me both in heaven and on earth." Paul ex- 
presses the same truth in the text, "Wherefore, God hath highly 
exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name, 
that, at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in 
heaven and things on earth, and that every tongue should con- 
fess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." 

Exalted station! Raised far above all principality and 
power, and every name that is named, and made to be head over 
all things to the Church which is His body ; the fullness of Him 
that filleth all in all. Resplendent dignity ! "I have set my King 
upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. The Lord 



The Name Above Every Name 35 

hath said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten 
Thee : Ask of me and I will give Thee the heathen for thine 
inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possess- 
ion." Jesus is King : He wields the scepter of universal power ; 
He has put all enemies under His feet, and lives to save the lost. 

"Jesus reigns, and heaven rejoices; 
Jesus reigns, the God of love; 
See He sits on yonder throne; 
Jesus rules the world alone. 

King of glory reign forever; 

Thine an everlasting crown; 
Nothing from Thy love shall sever 

Those whom Thou hast made Thine own. 

Soon with golden harps we'll sing, 
Glory, Glory to our King." 

Truly Jesus has been highly exalted. Once poor, having 
nowhere to lay His head, cast out, scourged and crucified ; now 
invested with all power, to whom saints and angels alike are 
subject, the King of kings; once in the manger, now on the 
throne ; once rejected, now admired by the heavenly powers; once 
in Herod's court, a prisoner, now in heaven, governor of all 
things ; once before Pilate, accused of sin, now in the heavenly 
places receiving the acclamation of the just: "Holy, Holy, Holy, 
art Thou, O Lord God Almighty ;" once in the garden of sorrow, 
now on the heighths of divine glory; once on the Cross, now at 
the right hand of God ; once in the grave, now in the bosom of 
the Father. 

"Jesus, hail, enthroned in glory, 

There forever to abide, 
All the heavenly host adore Thee 
Seated at the Father's side. 

There for sinners Thou art pleading, 

There Thou dost our place prepare; 
Ever for us interceding, 

Till in glory we appear." 



36 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

What comfort here for you and me, my brother! Hard 
pressed as we are by sin, cast down in soul as we often find our- 
selves, despondent, disheartened — what cheer in the great fact 
that God hath highly exalted Jesus! That mighty lifting up of 
Christ is for us. We, too, shall be lifted up at last. We shall be 
sharers of our Savior's glory. Our destiny is the exaltation of 
Jesus. Desponding soul, cheer up. What if there are trials, and 
sorrows, and reproaches, and the battle of life goes hard? God 
hath highly exalted pur Lord Jesus. This is the pledge of 
Almighty God that you and I, though sinners, shall at last be 
lifted up out of the depths of our woe, and be acknowledged be- 
fore all the universe as heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. 

Cheer up, my brother, God hath highly exalted Jesus. This 
is the guarantee that all things are ours, whether life, or death, 
things present or things to come. Rejoice, my brother. "Who 
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died; yea, rather, that 
is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God making inter- 
cession for us." Neither angels, nor principalities, nor powers, 
nor heighth, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to 
destroy our hope. 



THE PREACHING OF CHRIST CRUCIFIED 

"But we preach Christ crucified, unto Jews a stumblingblock, and 
unto Gentiles foolishness, but unto them that are called, both Jews and 
Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." — I Cor. i: 23, 24. 

THIS is a very positive saying. It is the speech of the Apostle 
Paul. There is left no room for doubt as to whether he 
put the tradition of men on a level with the Gospel, or the grand 
theme of salvation above the science of the wise. However dark 
some of his teachings may be; however deep and hard of com- 
prehension many of his arguments in support of Christian doc- 
trine; still, this statement at once gives rise to a clearly denned 
impression, and tells us where he stood, and what was the busi- 
ness of his life. 

Although a very unassuming man, claiming for himself no 
excellency of speech or wisdom of words, yet he does not hesitate 
to say what to him was the matter of highest concern, assuring 
the Corinthians that he determined not to know anything among 
them save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Well versed in the 
law of his fathers, familiar with Gentile literature, skilled in all 
the learning of his day, still his aim was not to entertain with 
learned remarks or smooth, well-rounded sentences. A man who 
in eloquence could stand by the side of the most powerful orators 
of ancient or modern times, yet he never sought to stir the feel- 
ings and move the souls of men simply to win the crown of fame. 

Endowed with intellectual power of no ordinary degree, able 
to penetrate to the very depths of the profoundest themes, he was 
wont to handle and to uphold by irresistible argument the doc- 
trines of his faith. He was a master in the field of debate; a 
giant in the moral conflict of his day; a very Sampson in the 
intellectual forum; yet he never talked to astonish, never wrote 
to make a display, never reasoned to show his logical skill. A 



38 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

prominent figure in the great drama of that day, yet he never 
put himself in the foreground where his own figure would be the 
most conspicuous, or attract universal attention; but he took a 
position in the background, in the shadow of the divine form of 
Jesus Christ, to whom he ever pointed with urgency as the hope 
of a ruined world. But one aim guided his course; one end ruled 
his life, and that was not to exalt himself, but to tell the story of 
the Cross. Did he cease to be an enemy to our blessed religion? 
It was to be its strongest advocate. Did he submit to hardship, 
suffer persecution? It was to proclaim the riches of grace. Did 
he jeopardize his life for the Gospel's sake? Did he appear be- 
fore Felix, stand in the presence of Agrippa, go to Rome and in 
his clanking chains tread the palace of the Caesar? Did he toil 
and struggle and die the martyr's death? It was only to preach 
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 

But, alas ! He made a grave mistake ! So some would main- 
tain. Instead of preaching the Nazarene as a mighty conqueror 
who had come to rebuild the throne of David, wield the scepter 
of world-wide sway, and bring back the glory of the elder days, 
he comes before the descendants of Abraham to present to them 
a crucified Jesus. Of course, such a Gospel was a stumbling- 
block and a rock of offense. Instead of telling men that Jesus 
of Nazareth was a very wise philosopher, a logician of great 
mental power, a genius who worked out a new system of truth, 
a system that will culture and refine the race, lift up the fallen, 
ennoble and set the wheels of progress in an upward track, a 
new philosophy that contains sage remarks about nature, and 
gives an original theory, showing how this world of ours happens 
to exist, how man came to be what he is, a creature erect in form 
and able to think and able to reason himself from a weak child 
of nature to an immortal son of the unknown God; instead of 
expatiating on the virtues of the illustrious Galilean, His tender- 
ness and sympathy, His wise teaching and noble life; instead of 
comparing Him with Socrates, showing wherein He excelled Soc- 
rates and Socrates excelled Him, and presenting Him to the world 
as an example most fit for imitation ; — instead of all this, the 
Apostle preaches Christ crucified ! Of course, this was the height 



The Preaching of Christ Crucified 39 

of foolishness! A mistake, did I say? No! the very keynote of 
our Christianity is Christ crucified. A mistake? Let the Christian 
history of nineteen hundred years answer; the thousands who 
died at the stake for the Gospel of the Cross ; the millions whose 
life of devotion, of faith and of hope, attest the truth of our re- 
ligion. A mistake? Let Paul, the aged, himself answer: "I 
have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith ; henceforth there 
is laid up for me a crown of righteousness." "I know whom I 
have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that 
which I have committed unto Him against that day." 

I 

If now the question is raised, "Why should the preacher in 
his preaching know only Jesus Christ and Him crucified?" the 
answer must be, first, because Christ crucified is the wisdom of 
God. 

No one who believes in an intelligent Creator, for a moment 
doubts that the various kingdoms of nature are, as to themselves 
and to one another, well arranged. Everywhere the surest signs 
appear to show that the Creator's workmanship is very, very 
good. The rose which blooms for a day only is faultless in shape, 
most perfect in its delicate shades of color, and so never fails to 
please ; showing how wisely it was made. The veteran oak, 
which stands with roots deep down in the earth, and its top raised 
to the clouds, stately in form and complete in development, re- 
veals the intelligence of its unseen Master. The bow that spans 
the eastern or western sky, giving the finest touches of the artist's 
hand, so brilliant, so beautiful, displays the perfection of the di- 
vine Painter, who paints to please alike angel and man. The bee 
that builds its cell so wonderful, each time without a mistake, 
shows how very wise is He who taught it what to do. And what 
a piece of work is man ! how noble in reason ! how infinite in 
faculties ! in form and moving how express and admirable ! in 
action how like an angel ! in apprehension how like a God ! ever 
proclaiming the wisdom of Him who, out of the clay, made him 
to be a living soul. All nature speaks but one story; the valleys 



40 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

and the hills, the mountains and the plains, the earth and its 
myriad forms of life, show forth the perfection of their cause. 
Likewise, "the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firma- 
ment showeth His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, 
and night unto night showeth knowledge." Truly must it be 
said, "In wisdom, O Lord, hast thou made all things." 

But if the fact that creation glorifies its Maker makes mani- 
fest the wisdom of God, what shall we say of Christ crucified, 
who is the glory of the wondrous plan of redemption? In this 
great scheme the moral perfections of God are revealed in highest 
grandeur. Nowhere else is there such a display of divine love 
as in the plan of salvation, and by nothing in this world is there 
such a sublime expression of God's mercy as by the Cross of 
Calvary. Roll back nineteen hundred years and go to the humble 
crib at Bethlehem. Behold a child laid in a manger. It is God's 
well beloved Son you see. He left heaven, came down to earth, 
and made His appearance in the form of a sinful man. Such 
humiliation, such abasement ! the great God a child on earth ! who 
can understand it ? How far He came ; how low He stooped ! 
down from the heavenly heighth, from the bosom of His eternal 
Father to a tenement of clay, to mortals perishing and lost ! how 
wide the distance ! how vast the interval ! When looking out on 
nature, you are forced to exclaim, "The earth is full of the good- 
ness of the Lord." But, oh, what goodness shines forth from that 
little manger ! a goodness that you never see in manor, angel, or 
in the thousands of worlds that roll through immensity. Here is 
the exhibition of a love that Gabriel never knew, though he had 
lived untold ages amid the glories of the heavenly world, walked 
and talked unceasingly with the Maker of his spirit, and imbibed 
the fullness of God. 

But more! Go forward thirty years, and you see this Son 
of God, the good and loving Man of Nazareth, healing the sick, 
curing the blind, cleansing the lepers, making the deaf to hear, 
the lame to walk, raising the dead, filling the sorrowful with joy, 
lifting up the poor, pouring out His soul in deepest tenderness 
and sympathy, despised and rejected, yet weeping for the people 
of His choice, a poor man, having nowhere to lay His head, 



The Preaching of Christ Crucified 41 

slandered and persecuted, yet toiling on that His enemies might 
live to be blest. Oh, was there ever love like this ; love so pure, 
so holy? Had God in all the ages past ever so unbosomed Him- 
self to His creatures, and allowed such a glorious display of the 
tenderest feeling of His great heart? If the mighty angel was 
astonished when God sent His only begotten Son into the world, 
what must have been his feelings when he saw this beloved Son 
entering into the woes of sinful men, making Himself of no 
reputation, going down into the vilest pit, bringing out the 
diseased and dying, infusing into them a new life, and sending 
them on their way rejoicing, and giving glory to God in the 
highest. Well might the angel join with us in saying, "Oh, for 
such love let rocks and hills their lasting silence break." 

But there is still a greater wonder. Look toward the hill of 
Calvary. Behold the incarnate Son of God, the Man of sorrows 
and acquainted with grief, nailed to the Cross by wicked men, 
and crucified. Behold Him bleeding. See how He suffers. It 
is He who is so kind and good, who weeps for poor sinners and 
prays, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." 
Mocked and ridiculed ; shamefully treated ; feeling an agony that 
never can be told, there He hangs, the eternal Son of God, the 
pure and loving one, dying, dying to save us wretched and guilty 
sinners. Not a word of complaint, not a murmur does He utter ; 
left alone, without fault or sin He dies. And now you must fix 
your eyes on the Cross of Calvary. There you can see love, high 
as heaven and deeper than hell ; love that astounds the mightiest 
angels, love that overwhelms us sinful mortals and makes the 
presence of God to be the blessed and unspeakable glory. 

"Was it for crimes that I have done, 

He groaned upon the tree? 

Amazing pity, grace unknown 

And love beyond degree ! 

Well might the sun in darkness hide, 

And shut his glories in, 
When Christ the Mighty Maker died, 

For man, the creature's sin." 



42 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

And now what greater display of His excellence could God 
make, what more could He do to enhance His glory and make it 
to appear still more awful to the kingdom of His vast empire? 
Nothing. Do angels ask to see His glory ? He points them to the 
Cross. Do devils hold jubilee over the fall of man and the work- 
ings of sin? He conquers them by the power of the Cross. Do 
sinners look for the surest pledge, and truest display of His love ? 
He tells them of the Cross stained with His most precious blood. 
Oh, my brother, is not Jesus Christ and Him crucified the wisdom 
of God? 

II 

Another reason for preaching the Cross is that the crucified 
Jesus is the power of God. There is a wondrous power to be 
seen in the created works that daily attract our attention. This 
is only physical might, and would appear just as grand had the 
Son of God never tabernacled in the flesh. But there is another 
power of God, a moral, saving power which redemption brings 
to light. Look at the history of the case. Satan had founded a 
kingdom on earth, sin had enslaved the race and held jubilee over 
the victory, while death reigned with undisputed sway. If man 
would live again, this kingdom must be destroyed. Satan must 
be routed, sin must be disarmed, death must be vanquished. But 
how can it be done? Can the captive break his chains? Can he 
rise up in a strength that bids defiance to every foe, march to the 
throne of his oppressor, drive him from his seat and restore this 
world of tears and pain to the paradise of old? Can the diseased 
and dying sinner reason out a method by which he can make him- 
self whole and alive? What can the dead man see? Why the 
poor sinner has been trying to find a way to Paradise for five 
thousand years and more, and where is he today? In the grasp 
of sin. No. Reason, powerful as it is, is not able to perform the 
mighty work. Philosophy, wise and profound as it is, can never 
tell man what is his disease, much less prescribe a remedy. God 
only knew what must and could be done. And so He sent His 
Son. He came. First, He encountered the prince of darkness 
in the desert, then met him in the garden, and last on the Cross, 



The Preaching of Christ Crucified 43 

in the agonies of death, in triumphant conflict bruised the serpent's 
head, spoiled principalities and powers, and shook the whole 
kingdom of darkness to its very center. He died and was locked 
in a tomb of stone. Death raised the cry of victory, shouting, 
"I have pursued and triumphed and the spoils are mine. Come 
on, ye routed legions, to the feast." But, lo ! the earth begins to 
quake, the massive stone rolls from the sepulcher's door, the 
crucified Jesus bursts the bars of death, He rises, and He rises 
in the power of the Mighty God, and leads captivity captive. 
Where now is the foolishness of preaching the Cross? Is not 
the weakness of God stronger than men? What man could not 
do, what an angel could not undertake, the God-man not only 
undertook, but carried forward to a glorious end, breaking the 
chains which bound the sinner, setting the prisoner free, and then, 
going up before His Father to declare, "I am He that liveth, and 
was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore." Well could all 
heaven cry out as the conqueror was nearing His throne, "Lift 
up your heads, O, ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting 
doors, and the King of glory shall come in." 

And now, whence comes the religion that has blest the world 
with light and life? Whence the Christianity that has torn down 
the temples of idolatry, built the altars of holy worship, set the 
nations on the highway of true progress, and is, today, raising 
mankind to a nobler, better sphere? Whence, I ask, has come 
this Christianity that has passed through storm and battle, and 
today wields an influence over all the kingdoms of the world? 
From the crucified Jesus. Is it not wonderful? What man ever 
founded a religion as He did ? Who, like Him, was put to death, 
while His doctrine survived, extended its sway, and brought under 
control nation after nation until it became the master of the 
world? Would you put Him beside a Confucius, a Buddha, or 
a Mohamet? Is He nothing more than they? Is He not the 
power of God? Do you suppose that the teachings or life of a 
wise man could be preached for a hundred years, and yet chain 
the attention of high and low, ignorant and learned; melt the 
hardest heart to tenderness and subdue the vilest passion of the 
soul? And yet the simple story of Jesus crucified has interested 



44 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

the world for nineteen hundred years. You and I have heard this 
same story that Peter told on the day of Pentecost, a hundred 
times and more, and did we ever grow weary of it? Is it not 
as interesting today as ever ; yea, sweeter and more precious than 
when it first fell on our ears? It never grows old. The poor 
restless sinner, even in the trouble and hurry of a sinful life, will 
stop to hear it told him, time and again. There is something in 
this story that just suits his case, and moves him, he knows not 
exactly why. It draws and woos, though he be the chief of sin- 
ners. What crowding there has been around the hill of Calvary ! 
How many thousands have come to look, to listen, to wonder, 
and to find rest! Some, it is true, have been there to sneer, to 
mock, and perhaps in the end to pray; but the weary ones of 
humanity, the heavy laden are there because they cannot stay 
away; it is such a blessed, heavenly place. Do you remember 
what Jesus said, "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men 
unto me." Yes, He has been drawing all men unto Him these 
many centuries, and still Pie is drawing, and still they come. 

Wise men of our day talk much about human methods of 
salvation. But what man, however great and strong, ever saved 
a soul? If it is such an easy matter as some would have us be- 
lieve, surely at this late day it should be well known. 

But I can tell you of a person who is able to save sinners 
of every grade. He saved David, a great sinner before God. He 
saved Magdalene, a perishing soul. He saved Saul of Tarsus, 
the Pharisee. He saved Simon Peter who denied Him in the 
presence of His enemies. Mighty to save! Behold that great 
company whom no man can number, gathered from every kindred 
and tribe, from the North and the South, from the East and the 
West, sitting down together in the Kingdom of God; justified, 
sanctified, shouting, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto 
Thy name be all the glory." Mighty to save. 

Who is it that has changed the sinner into a saint; given 
him the victory in the day of battle, and raised him far above the 
scenes of earth unto the heavenly places? And who is it that has 
brought you and me out of the course of this world and set our 
faces heavenward, put a new song into our mouths, even praises 



The Preaching of Christ Crucified 45 

unto the most High, and made us to be fellow-citizens with the 
saints and with the household of God ? I know you have but one 
answer — Jesus, who was crucified, rose from the dead, and ever 
lives to rescue perishing sinners. 



THE ONLY SOURCE OF LIFE 

"Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal 
life." — John vi: 68. 

WORDS of eternal life!" What are they? They are spirit 
and they are life. "Eternal life !" The priceless good ! 
We seek it, we long for it, we hunger for it. "Words of eternal 
life!" Where can we hear them ? Who can speak them ? Whence 
are they to be gotten? 

To these inquiries two answers are given. The first is that of 
the wisdom of this world ; the second, that of the Apostle Peter. 

The natural man deems himself sufficient in the exercise of 
his natural powers for any undertaking. He thinks he is not 
seriously disabled. He can prosecute the most momentous enter- 
prises to a successful end. He can attain, single handed, alone, 
the perfect refinement of his nature, and an immortality of an un- 
speakable glory. His idea is that human development is obtained 
through a process of education which runs from birth till death. 
The all-necessary action is strict obedience to the laws of nature ; 
laws which pertain not only to the physical, but more especially 
to those moral rules which govern men and their ways. In such 
a process, namely, that of natural education, are to be found the 
words of eternal life. 

However, one needs only to open one's eyes to see that this 
teaching of human thought comes far short of the truth. It may 
be pleasing to the natural man to put out of court the spiritual 
nature in ourselves, and then go on to conceive fairy notions of 
the proud independence of the human creature and his inherent 
power to do all things needful for getting the highest good — the 
good which satisfies the needs of his immortal soul. But this is 
sheerest fancy. Man has in him the spiritual. The worldly 
wise may go on in their way of wisdom and leave out entirely 
the higher facts of human nature, or mention them as the fruits 
of superstition ; but still the irresistible dignity of the human being 
abides. 



The Only Source of Life 47 

"Superstition," they say. But who is superstitious? Is it 
the diamond, so valuable as a product of nature? Is it the lion, 
the beaver, or the eagle? No, only man. And what is super- 
stition ? The imaginary idea of something which is not, and never 
could be? But whoever imagines the absolutely impossible? Is 
it true, as these wise teachers of today claim, that the only facts 
are those which belong to the mental and physical universe? 
Why, then, talk about a conscience, if man is only body and in- 
tellect? There are spiritual facts as well. We have the testi- 
monies of all history as proof. The men and women of every 
age witness to their existence. But if there are spiritual facts, 
there must be a spiritual reality which is the ground and source 
of these facts. 

And more, this spiritual nature of ours has needs peculiar 
to itself, cravings higher than those of the intellect, aspirations 
reaching out beyond the stars. These needs, these cravings, these 
aspirations, are perpetual facts in the life of the human soul. 
What provision does the mere naturalist in his teachings make 
for these facts? None. His science, his philosophy, his litera- 
ture, what do they tell of how and where and by whom these deep 
experiences of our souls can find real satisfaction? Nothing. 
These spiritual facts point to a spiritual God, whose fullness alone 
is sufficient for the weary, heavy laden soul of man. 

Talk about a God ! But who is the god of skeptical human 
thought ? Ah ! he is a god, yes, he is a god, but a god without 
sympathy for the weak and erring; a god without compassion 
for the troubled and the suffering ; a soulless, loveless something, 
unknown and unknowable, that contests the battle of life with 
wretched humanity. And this is the god for whom humanity 
yearns ? After whom go out the noblest aspirations of our being, 
and for whom the souls of men are athirst and exclaim, "Oh, that 
I might find Him, and awake in His likeness ?" Shame ! that any 
human teaching should seek so to belittle the dignity of our 
nature, and feed the human soul with empty chaff! 

But what of sin ? What recognition of this startling fact is 
given by the natural man? Indeed, one, looking through his 
moral teachings, would not suspect that any such disorder — I 



48 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

mean as a sinful nature — exists; that it runs through the whole 
history of the race, and that it belongs to the life of every indi- 
vidual. Theodore Parker, a man who claimed to be guided by the 
light of human wisdom, affirmed, near the close of his life, that 
there is no such reality as sin. Archbishop Trench, in one of his 
earlier poems, represents a young man who had diligently sought 
words of eternal life from the wisdom of the natural man. At 
last, disappointed and sad and without hope, he wanders into a 
desert, and finally sits down by the side of an old temple. Sud- 
denly an old man stands by his side and asks, "What is your 
sorrow ?" The young man replies : 

"Till now, my youth yet scarcely done, 
The heart which I had thought to steep 
In hues of beauty and to keep 
Its consecrated home and fame, — 
That heart is soiled with many a stain, 
Which, from without or from within, 
Has gathered there till all is sin. 
Till now I only draw my breath, 
1 live but in the hope of death." 

The old man replies : 

"Ah, no ! my son, 
A weary course your life has run; 
And yet it need not be in vain 
That you have suffered all this pain; 
Nay, deem not of us as at strife, 
Because you set before your life 
A purpose and a loftier aim 
Than the blind lives of men may claim. 

For the most part; or that you sought, 
By fixed resolve and solemn thought, 
To lift your being's calm estate 
Out of the range of time and fate. 
But yet herein you proudly erred, 
Here may the source of love be found. 
You thought to fling yourself around 
The atmosphere of light and love 
In which it was your joy to move. 



The Only Source of Life 49 

You thought by efforts all your own, 

To take at least each jarring tone 

Out of your life, till all should meet 

In one majestic music sweet; 

And deemed that in your own heart's ground 

The root of good was to be found; 

And that by careful watering, 

And earnest tendence we may bring 

The bud, the blossoms and the fruit, 

To grow and flourish from the root. 

You deemed you needed nothing more 
Than skill and courage to explore 
Deep down enough in your own heart 
To where the well-head lay apart, 
Which must the springs of being feed, 
And that these fountains did but need, 
The soil that choked them more away, 
To bubble in the open day. 

But thanks to heaven ! it is not so ; 
That root a richer soil doth know 
Than our poor hearts could e'er supply; 
That stream is from a source more high; 
From God it came, to God returns, 
Not nourished from our scanty urns, 
But fed from His unfailing river, 
Which runs and will run on forever." 

Thus we may well echo Peter's exclamation, when Christ 
asked His disciples whether they would forsake Him; "Lord, to 
whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." 



THE CHURCH OF THE LIVING GOD 

"The church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the 
truth." — / Tim. Hi: 15. 

THE Christian Church is a great fact. It has been for a long 
time in the world. It fills a large portion of the history of 
nineteen centuries. It has proved itself a most powerful agency 
amidst the affairs of men, and veritably a chief factor in the pro- 
duction of the civilization which marks the present age. 

Nevertheless, the church is made the subject of detraction. 
From time to time we are informed that the church has passed 
into decadence. Its power has waned. It is no more as in- 
fluential as it was aforetime. The world in the march of progress 
has gained a superior place. The masses have turned away from 
the sanctuaries of the Most High. Other agencies have sup- 
planted the Church, and are attracting the attention of the people. 
A new era has dawned, the era of science, of practical wisdom 
and general intelligence, in which other forces than the institu- 
tions of Christianity are the conservators of the highest welfare 
of the race. The Christian Church has been outlived. It must 
be reckoned among the powers that were, but are no longer — a 
remarkable phenomenon of the past, but of small moment in the 
present. So say the depredators of the Church. 

However, before we fall in with these surprising announce- 
ments, it is wise to inquire carefully concerning the characteristics 
of the Christian Church and its present status in the world. 

What is the Christian Church ? It is not a human organiza- 
tion, not of man, not by man. It is not of this world. According 
to our text, it is "the Church of the living God." The living God, 
be it observed. There are gods many. Every man, it may be 
said, has his deity, the god whom he thinks to be. This is the 
god he praises and in whom he believes. He is the god of human 



The Church of the Living God 



51 



imagination, the creation of human thought. Aside from this, he 
has no existence. Call him, he gives no answer ; cry aloud to him 
the day through, he makes no response ; beseech him with groans 
and tears, but he is as silent as the dead ; seek him anywhere in 
the wide universe, but he cannot be found save in the fanciful 
ideas of the human mind. With these he comes ; with these he 
goes ; he lives as they live ; he dies as they die. 

In contrast with this god of the human fancy, there is the 
true and living God referred to in the text, who is from everlast- 
ing to everlasting, in whom we live and move and have our being, 
the fountain of life. The Christian Church is the Church of the 
living God ; the God who quickeneth all things ; the blessed and 
only Potentate, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light 
unto which no man can approach ; whom no man has seen nor 
can see ; to whom belong honor and power everlasting. 

Again, it is to be noted that the Christian Church is the con- 
gregation of believers. It is not a club organized for mere social 
and business ends. It is not an association of those who seek 
literary and aesthetic culture, and therefore the assembly of the 
refined in taste and profound in knowledge. It is the congrega- 
tion of those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation 
from the guilt and condemnation of sin ; the elect of God in Jesus 
Christ, the congregation of believers. This is the glorious com- 
pany of the ages, believers in Christ, the Church of the living God. 

Further, it must be said that the Church is the body of Christ. 
He is the head, the Church is His body, the followers of Him 
that filleth all in all, a remarkable, and at the same time, a most 
precious truth. That Christ could exist without a body external 
to Himself, the expression of Himself, and into which He ever- 
more pours His fullness, would be most surprising, nay, incon- 
ceivable. 

A great truth is to be noted at this juncture. The nature of 
all life is to embody itself, to evolve for itself a form which it 
enlivens by its powers, to which it communicates the fullness of 
its energy and in which it appears as a second self. Observe, for 
instance, the myriad forms about us in the natural world. What 
diversity and yet pleasing unity and reality ! But all of them are 



52 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

bodies of natural life. They are its products, the existence of 
itself in a new way, the modes according to which it ever realizes 
the invariable tendency of its nature. The earth, with all its con- 
tents, is the body of the natural life, and evermore exhibits the 
fullness of this life which fills the universe. 

In the spiritual realm a like fact obtains. Jesus Christ is 
life. He is the fullness of all life. That He should, as such, 
exist, and yet should have existence only in abstract reality, by 
Himself and for. Himself alone, would contradict the nature of 
every species of life, even that of the divine life itself. What is 
it that the eternal life of God has shown itself to be? What but 
an energy which, in the three modes of the divine existence, 
Father, Son and Holy Ghost, embodies itself, and which as the 
life of these three has given eternal expression to itself in the 
form of a material and rational universe. 

But I must repeat, Christ is life. He is perfect human life 
of love to God and love to man. As such He exists the most 
glorious reality amidst the realities which are outside of the per- 
fections of the eternal God. He is, in the most pre-eminent way, 
the body of God ; for as the Scripture teaches, "in Him dwells all 
the fullness of the Godhead bodily." He is life ; He is eternal life, 
the life of God. As such He reproduces Himself, not by an 
original creation of the material out of which He forms a body 
for Himself. No ! He takes that which is already at hand, the 
old creation as He finds it in the person of human creatures, dis- 
figured, marred and ruined as it is by sin — this He renews, ani- 
mates, fashions and moulds by His quickening grace into a new 
creature who honestly acknowledges, "I live, yet not I, but Christ 
liveth in me, and the life which I now live, I live by the faith of 
the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." 

The believer is the expression of Jesus Christ external to 
Himself, and the congregation of believers is, hence, truly called 
the body of Christ, which is the Church of the living God. 

It is, therefore, easy to perceive how close and vital is the 
connection between the believer and Christ, between the Church 
and Christianity. Where the latter is, the former will always be. 
The two are inseparable. The business of the Gospel is this: 



The Church of the Living God 53 

out of the sinful men of the human race, in every age, to produce 
believers ; the mission of Christ in seeking to save the lost is to 
gather around Himself a glorious Church, and the activities of 
saving grace are directed to this one end. For this Christ lived, 
and wrought and suffered, and died and rose from the dead, and 
ascended on high, namely, that those who were dead in trespasses 
and sins might have life, and thereby be transformed into the 
image of Him who is humanity at the climax. No church, no 
believers ; no believers, no Christ who lives and works to repro- 
duce Himself out of a sinful humanity into a most holy Church, 
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, His immortal body. 

A real, actually existing, historic Christ and His body the 
Church are inseparable. But an ideal Christ, the Christ of the 
human imagination, has no present body; never had and never 
will have. This is at an infinite distance from the ideal concep- 
tion. It must wait for realization through an endless progression. 
There is no church of the idea, but there is a Church of a Person, 
a great, unique, original Person, who not only has ideas, but who 
is also able to set them forth in glorious reality — external to Him- 
self, Jesus Christ who said : "On this rock will I build my 
Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." 

But I would have you observe that the Church of the living 
God is also, according to the text, "the pillar and ground of the 
truth." What truth? Any truth? No. But of redeeming truth. 
Christ says, "I am the truth." Ah ! the truth of which He speaks 
is the truth which He Himself is, the saving truth of the Gospel. 
Of this truth the Church is the pillar and ground. Truth, in itself 
considered, is one thing; truth as we know it by experience, is 
another thing. Concerning the former we can make no affir- 
mation whatsoever. It is a meaningless blank. Concerning the 
latter we can and do make positive avowal. Nature is truth. But 
nature apart from knowable relation with ourselves is a riddle, 
an unsolvable enigma. Of it we can say nothing. What it is we 
are unable to state. But nature, as it reveals itself in our con- 
sciousness, we know, and of it, so far as our experience goes, we 
are able to say, "this and that are true." 



54 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

One thing we require at every step. It is certainty. Is that 
which is affirmed fact? Is it true? Is it real? But where can 
certainty of knowledge be obtained? Outside of consciousness, 
outside of experience? Assuredly not. All knowledge, if it be 
knowledge at all, must be in consciousness. The certainty, there- 
fore, which is ever sought and demanded as the criterion for 
knowledge, must be found, if found anywhere, in the experience 
of consciousness. To be clearly certain of anything is to be as 
certain as we are that we exist. Of the reality of our existence 
we can have no possible doubt. It is the conviction of our con- 
stant experience. According to this conviction of the certainty 
of ourselves, we gauge the certainty of whatever our experience 
reveals. That fire burns, powder explodes, the sun shines, are 
facts whose reality we ever maintain on the strength of our ex- 
perience in consciousness. We are as certain of them as of our 
existence. Our knowledge in the experience of the operations 
and movements of nature is with us, and among men the pillar 
and ground of truth. The truth of nature as men know it by 
experience is the truth which they believe and maintain to be 
certain. Now note with care: the human mind is not the pillar 
and ground of natural truth taken solely by itself, but of natural 
truth as known by actual experience in consciousness. This is 
the truth to which it testifies. 

Likewise are we justified in speaking of the Church of God. 
It is the pillar and ground of redeeming truth, which is Jesus 
Christ. It knows Him and He knows the Church. "I know my 
sheep and am known of mine." This knowledge is a fact of clear 
experience, carrying with it the deepest conviction of certainty 
of which the human soul is capable. The Church has a Gospel. 
It is the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. This is the Gospel 
she believes and preaches — the Gospel she defends and maintains ; 
the Gospel she knows, not by foreign report, nor by the process 
of thought, but by a clear experience in consciousness. She ever 
insists : "I know whom I have believed," and, "I know that 
Christ is the power of God unto salvation to every one who be- 
lieves, and that this Gospel I received neither of man nor by man, 
but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." 



The Church of the Living God 55 

On this experience of personal salvation she plants herself, 
and maintains against the whole kingdom of unbelief the reality 
of the unsearchable riches of grace. Her Gospel is not a theory 
about salvation, a religious philosophy devised for the uplifting 
of the human race to a life of perfectness before God, but a 
Gospel tested and verified by actual experience, thus having all 
about it the conviction of a certainty which scorns the remotest 
doubt. 

And now I proceed to say that the Christian Church has 
proven herself from the beginning of her career down through the 
centuries, to be the pillar and ground of redeeming truth. She 
has defended Christianity against every opponent. She has main- 
tained the Gospel of the Lord in the face of a world mad with 
sin. She has stood for the truth as it is in Jesus, before the un- 
believing crowd, before kings and emperors, and before every 
unfriendly power of earth, before false teachings, before vain 
philosophy, before science falsely so called, before the infidel wit 
and ingenuity of the natural man ; yea, before Jews and Gentiles 
and Greeks she has ever stood firm and loyal; and with the 
assurance of a certainty which is irrepressible, she has preached 
Christ crucified, the wisdom and power of God unto salvation to 
every one who believes. And this precious Gospel she has main- 
tained in the history of nineteen centuries in undiminished power. 
Today she is spreading over the earth as aforetime, upholding, 
defending, preaching the story of the Cross, testifying to sinners 
that this story is true on the ground of the certainty of her ex- 
perience of salvation; that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the 
living God ; that He has the power to forgive sins ; that He can 
speak peace to the troubled soul; that He is able to save sinners 
of every grade, and that whosoever believes in Him shall not 
perish, but have everlasting life. 

And still more, I stand here to ask who beside the Church 
of the living God during these nineteen centuries has born un- 
flinching witness to the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Who 
in the beginning started from Jerusalem to preach the Gospel to 
ever creature? Who steadily went forward testifying before 
men without wavering in behalf of saving love ? Who stood be- 



56 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

fore Agrippa and in the halls of the Caesars and maintained the 
eternal truth of God's Word? Who confessed Jesus Christ the 
only Savior for a ruined world before the powers of human 
society with the heroism of faith which has immortalized the 
people of God? And who is it, when unbelief, infidelity, skep- 
ticism sought to destroy the life of the Child Jesus, stretched 
forth the arm to defend and maintain the hope of a lost and 
ruined race? Who is it, I ask, that has been the pillar and stay 
of the saving truth, the Gospel of life and salvation during these 
ages? The Church of the living God. 

No agency of this world, no matter what its character, or 
how careful in some spheres of human life it may be, can claim 
this high distinction. Not only so, but none is competent for such 
a high undertaking. All the institutions, enterprises and move- 
ments of men lack the essential qualification. They cannot give 
a living testimony, and with unqualified certainty, say to the 
perishing world, to the weary souls of men : "I know that my 
Redeemer liveth, and that He is the saving power of the eternal 
God. Trust Him, only trust, and you will have peace so real, and 
joy that will abide even through the shades of night." 

This positive testimony the men of the world can never give. 
Only the people of God can certify to the truth of saving grace. 
And so it comes to pass that there is but one pillar and ground 
of the truth — the Church of the living God. 

I must say, once more, that the Church is the minister of 
comfort and hope. Who was it, brother, that came to you, in 
the hour when you were downcast and deeply troubled on account 
of sin; when you felt that the very foundations underneath you 
were giving way; that you were sinking perhaps never to rise; 
that time when the sense of your sinfulness and guilt was press- 
ing heavy on your soul, and you realized that you were indeed a 
lost and perishing prodigal ? Who, I ask, was it that then came to 
you in your distress, and said in a soothing heavenly voice : "Be 
of good cheer. In thy Father's house there is plenty and to spare. 
Thou needst not perish. Return, oh prodigal, return to thy for- 
saken home. Thy Father is waiting and watching for thee to 
come back. He will receive thee with open arms, and will wel- 



The Church of the Living God 57 

come thee into His banqueting hall, and over thee He will hang 
the banner of His love. Do not despair. Jesus who gave His 
life for thee is anxious that you come back. He shed His blood 
that every difficulty might be put out of the way, and that you 
might come just as you are and be saved. And this is all true. I 
vouch for it. I know beyond all doubt that the door of life is 
open, and that just such a sinner as you may enter and live 
forever." 

Now, my brother, who has brought the sweet message of 
love to you, backed as it was by the most certain assurance that 
it is true from beginning to end? I reply, the Church of the 
living God. Anybody else? No! Miserable comforters, indeed, 
did all others seem. Only the Church of the Redeemer spoke 
words of real cheer and hope. 

And in the days of your affliction, when life seemed to have 
lost all interest for you, when the gloom of sorrow enswathed 
your soul, who came to you and extended the hand of helpful 
sympathy, and comforted your heart with an assurance which 
helped you so much to bear the heavy burden of grief, whispered 
gentle words of hope, and spoke of an almighty Savior who 
weeps with those who weep, and who is the resurrection and the 
life? The Church of the living God. And who enters where 
earthly life is passing away, and the soul stands face to face with 
death — a most trying hour for every mortal — who then enters 
and ministers the consolations of divine mercy and points the 
struggling soul to the one who is strong to deliver and mighty to 
save ; a friend who never leaves nor forsakes and who is sufficient 
for any trials? Who is it that ministers so tenderly and gives 
comfort and hope — comfort which this world cannot offer, hope 
of which this world cannot tell ; when there is a passing of a soul 
from this world to the other side, who then is able to speak words 
of cheer and hope, and, without any misgiving, declare the 
gracious promises of the Gospel ? The Church of the living God. 

But enough. We are in the dawn of the twentieth century. 
The announcement is blandly made that the Church of the living 
God is decadent. Having run her course, she is no longer service- 
able. The present century will witness her sepulture. Her altars 



58 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

will be thrown down. Her pulpits will be destroyed. Her sanc- 
tuaries will be closed and changed into halls of scientific, literary, 
aesthetic or ethical culture. 

Be not alarmed at the vain outcry. The Church of our 
God has passed through the most desperate conflicts. She 
has maintained herself against all comers, and is here today, 
strong to run the race of the future. As aforetime, she will be 
an overmatch for all the powers of the world. She will con- 
tinue to live as He lives on from age to age with immortal fresh- 
ness of vigor and strength, who is her Redeemer and God. Be 
not alarmed, my brother; the Church of the living God is not 
going the way of earthly things, the boastful claim of the wise 
men of our day to the contrary notwithstanding. She still lives 
and works and fights the good fight of faith. She is now, this 
very day, going forth, conquering and to conquer, and in like 
manner will she keep on waging the battle for God, until the 
kingdoms of this world shall be the kingdoms of our Lord and His 
Christ. Be not cast down and of doubtful mind. As sure as we 
live this day, the Church will abide through all the changing 
scenes of this world. Multitudes may desert her ; many, as they 
are today, may be indifferent to her concerns; thousands upon 
thousands may refuse to own her Lord and the Son of God, who 
made Himself in the likeness of sinful flesh and of no reputation 
and on Mount Calvary offered an eternal sacrifice for sinful men. 
Nevertheless, the Church of the living God will flourish from 
generation to generation. The eternal years of God are hers. At 
last she will overcome every enemy, and standing on the riven 
tomb of humanity, will shout, "Victory, victory unto God." 



'O where are kings and empires now, 
Of old that went and came? 

But, Lord, Thy Church is praying yet, 
A thousand years the same. 

We mark her goodly battlements, 
And her foundations strong; 

We hear within the solemn voice 
Of her unending song. 



The Church of the Living God 59 

; For not like kingdoms of the world 

Thy Holy Church, O God! 
Though earthquake shocks are threatening her, 

And tempests are abroad ; 

Unbroken as eternal hills, 

Immovable she stands; 
A mountain that shall fill the earth, 

A house not made with hands." 

My brethren, let us commit ourselves, our souls, our hopes, 
our destiny to the care of the Church of the living God. She will 
bear us safely over the roughest seas, through the wildest storms, 
and bring us with the shout of eternal victory and the brightness 
of divine glory to the desired haven. 

"The peace of God which passeth all understanding keep 
your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." 



THE CHRISTIAN'S VOCATION 

"Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called." — Eph. iv: 1. 

I DEEM it proper to speak a little to you about the Christian's 
vocation. First, I would point out some of the characteristics 
of this vocation ; second, I desire to note how it should be 
pursued. 

I 

Some characteristics of this vocation. 

The Christian's vocation is a divine calling. It is not of 
man. It is from God. This is true in the fullest sense. Some- 
times we doubtless imagine that it is, in a measure at least, other- 
wise. In part, it should be said, we have first turned our steps 
into the heavenly way, and then God met us with the assurance 
of His good will, and with the promise of His continued presence 
and help. Or we may suppose that, in fact, we have been called 
to better things by a human voice, and are now in the Church of 
the living God through the influence of our friends and neighbors. 
It may be somewhat difficult for us to realize that we are what 
we are solely by the grace of God, and not by the word of man. 
Nevertheless, it is an undeniable fact, and needs to be recognized 
by all who name the name of Christ, as the only valid reason why 
we are the children of light and no longer the children of dark- 
ness. 

The plain fact is that God first sought us, and not that we 
first sought Him. Consider for a moment our attitude toward 
heavenly things, while yet in the sinful way; how absorbed we 
were in evil thoughts, desires and wicked acts ! What aversion 
for everything that is truly good and holy was characteristic of 
our moral disposition ! What delight we took in the pleasures of 
sin! How diligently we pushed God and His claims out of our 



The Christian's Vocation 61 

minds ! With what determination we pursued the course of 
sensuous life ! How we walked on in the broad road which leads 
only to destruction! Ah, how little we cared for the God who 
created us in His image! In truth we cared nothing for Him. 
The only deity for whom we had any regard, whom we at times 
praised and called our god, was the god of our own imagination, 
the god who existed merely in the fancy of our imagination, and 
was as dead as Tiglath Pileser. But the eternal, living God, who 
knows and loves, and who is our Father — for Him we cared 
nothing, neither did we yearn to be in touch with Him, to have 
communion with Him and to walk in His ways. We heard only 
the voice of this world, and to this call we were promptly 
obedient. 

But the day came when another voice sounded in our hearts. 
It was a still small voice. It was a strange, a heavenly voice. It 
came from above. It was a tender voice, so gentle, so kind. Its 
accents were so touching, so gracious : "Come unto me, all ye that 
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest ; take my yoke 
upon you, and learn of me, for my yoke is easy and my burden 
is light, and ye shall find rest to your souls." We heard the 
Gospel. It was the call of God bidding us come out of the dark- 
ness into His own marvelous light. And now, through the 
gracious Word, by the Holy Spirit, we became sensible of our 
actual condition, the miserable state in which we were. We began 
to realize that we were lost and verily guilty before high heaven, 
and justly condemned, and that, unless laid hold of by an Al- 
mighty hand and rescued from the power of sin, we must abide 
everlastingly in our ruined state. Then it was that we turned by 
the power of the Holy Spirit from a sinful life unto a life in 
God, and found ourselves to be new creatures, having new 
thoughts, new feelings, new aspirations, new hopes. "Old things 
had passed away; all things had become new." 

But to be a little more specific, I must say that the Christian's 
calling is the vocation of love, of divine love. Love is the un- 
speakable excellence. It is the sum of all perfection. It is the 
only adequate description of the divine nature. "God is love." 
In all His movements, in all His purposes, in His eternal life, in 



62 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

the supremest quality of His being, He is love. So His revelation 
in Jesus Christ describes Him. So He is. At the mention of 
this word "love," the first thought with us may be that of the 
noblest, holiest feeling. But were we to rest with this, we would 
remain far short of the truth in our apprehension. Love is some- 
thing more and other than pure sentiment or devoted feeling. 
Primarily it is act, and just that kind of act which has reality 
only in the realms of the spiritual, where there are persons who 
can love and be loved — that is, who can give themselves to others 
and others are capable of receiving them. I said that love is act. 
I must add, it is the greatest act, greatest for God, greatest for 
man. More than actually to give Himself God cannot do, neither 
can we : more He has not done ; likewise ourselves. But the fact 
stands, and it is the sublimest, most wonderful of all facts, that 
the eternal and ever blessed God has given Himself in the full- 
ness of His life for a sinful human race, for you and me, dead 
in trespasses and sins. And this He has done in the person of 
Jesus Christ, in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead 
bodily. This is God loving the sinner, dwelling in Jesus Christ 
and there giving Himself without reservation for the redemption 
of Adam and his sons. No wonder it is proclaimed that "God 
first loved us." Yes, He first gave Himself for us, that we might 
give ourselves to Him. And now it is in Christ that the most 
righteous and holy God speaks to us. There He is love for the 
guilty, condemned sinner, and ever shows Himself as being full 
of grace and truth, saying to His wretched creature, "Come, let 
us reason together; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be 
as white as snow ; though they be red like crimson, they shall be 
as wool." In Jesus Christ, where alone He can be found, the God 
who loves the sinner calls us to Himself, that He may have us 
again as His own, in perpetual union with Himself ; where He 
can communicate His fullness to us, and so make us to be once 
more like our great Original. Behold eternal love in the form of 
sinful flesh, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. There see the 
One who, through all the world's long day, with sweetest voice 
calls the sinful human soul back to its God and Father, saying, 
"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters ; come, buy 



The Christian s Vocation 63 

wine and milk, without money and without price. Let him that 
is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him come and drink of the 
water of life." "Look unto me and be saved." "Come unto me 
and live." The call of divine love to a lost and ruined race, how 
earnest, how intense! Behold it is the person of the lowly 
Nazarene, going about among a wayward people, despised, perse- 
cuted, defamed, bearing the burden of our miseries and woes : 
every step was an appeal to us to forsake our evil ways and to 
renounce our unholy thoughts and return to a holy life, to come 
back to our Heavenly Father. The struggle with our deadly foes ; 
the agony of Gethsemane ; the humiliation in Herod's Court and 
Pilate's Hall ; the suffering and death on the Cross of Calvary — 
one and all are the appeals of redeeming love calling us to a new 
and endless life. 

Do not, therefore, imagine that some other one with tender, 
yet penetrating voice has aroused us from the sleep of sin, and 
in cheering tone bade us renounce the ways of darkness and walk 
in the light. Oh no ! it is the love of God in Jesus Christ alone that 
announces to us the good news of forgiveness and begs us accept 
the gracious gift. It is the suffering, bleeding, dying love of a 
redeeming God that seeks us sinful mortals in the far off country 
of sin, in this wild and hopeless land, where all is wretchedness, 
misery and woe, and calls us with a voice powerful enough to 
wake the dead : "Come, for all things are now ready. My oxen 
and fatlings are killed. Come to the feast which I have prepared 
with my own hands. Come, eat and live." 

Speaking of ourselves, every one of us must say : 

"I was a wandering sheep, 

I did not love the fold, 
I did not love my Father's voice, 

I would not be controlled ; 
I was a wayward child, 

I did not love my home, 
I did not love my Father's voice, 
I loved afar to roam." 



64 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

But glorious to tell : 

"The Shepherd sought His sheep, 
The Father sought His child, 
He followed me o'er vale and hill, 

O'er desert waste and wild ; 
He found me nigh to death, 

Famished and faint and lone, 
He bound me with the bands of death, 
He saved the wandering one. 

Jesus my Shepherd is, 

'Twas He that loved my soul; 
'Twas He that washed me in His blood; 

'Twas He that made me whole; 
'Twas He that sought the lost, 

That found the wandering sheep; 
'Twas He that brought me to the fold; 

'Tis He that still doth keep. 

No more a wandering sheep, 

I love to be controlled ; 
I love my tender Shepherd's voice, 

I love, I love the fold. 
No more a wayward child, 

I seek no more to roam; 
I love my Heavenly Father's voice, — 

I love, I love His home." 

And now it is easy to see that this high calling of the Christian 
is unto a life with God in Christ. In Christ, observe ; not in man 
or in any other creature, but in Him who "thought it not a thing 
to be grasped at to be equal with God, but made Himself of no 
reputation, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the 
Cross" — in Him, and in Him alone, is resident our life with God. 
Here we are no longer strangers and foreigners and outcasts, but 
the people of God, having passed from death unto life, veritably 
new creatures. 

Our calling is companionship with God. But where does 
He exist for us — anywhere, everywhere, in the flower, in the tree, 
in the rippling stream, in forest and dale, in the great wide sea? 
Where do we find Him? Where are we one with Him? Where 



The Christian's Vocation 65 

is He reconciling the world unto Himself, pouring out His great 
heart in tender mercy for the erring? Only in Jesus Christ, of 
whom He says, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
pleased." Our God and Father, by all the resources of His 
nature, has called us unto Himself, to have fellowship with Him, 
to be as He is, to have our life in Him, and our destiny in His 
unchanging and unchangeable glory ; and all this He has done 
and is still doing in Him alone "who loved us and gave Himself 
for us" — the Redeemer of sinful men. Here we meet our God 
so grievously offended by our sin. Here we are alive again, not 
that we live ourselves, but Christ lives in us and we in God. 
Here we find the balm that flows for every wound, peace that ever 
shall endure, rest eternal, sacred, sure. 

But this glorious life is not temporal ; it is eternal life, for 
it is the life of the everlasting God. It is also without fault of 
any kind, pure and holy, for it is the life of the pure and holy 
God. And, lastly, it is the life of love, for it is in Jesus Christ 
that the eternal One has given Himself to us in the infinitude of 
His excellence, loves us to the uttermost ; and it is here that we 
wretched sinners give ourselves back to God, whom by our sin 
we have so shamefully deserted. It is here that we, aliens from 
the Holy One, love again our Father in heaven, so truly, so deeply, 
with a pure heart, with all our mind and soul and strength. Ever 
blessed be the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus 
Christ, who has called us to be His immortal companions, the 
possessors of His own most holy life, and sharers with Him in 
the glory of His love. 

Need I emphasize the fact that this life with God in Christ 
is the most precious, the most distinguished, the most exalted, the 
grandest both in its nature and the possibility of its achievements ? 
What other is there either in heaven or on earth that in every 
excellence is comparable with it? None. It abides alone, that 
one most glorious life of which we, though ruined by sin, are, 
nevertheless, capable, and of which, thanks to redeeming 
grace, we are the sure and certain possessors by the simple trust 
of our penitent hearts in the incalculable merits of our Lord and 
Savior Jesus Christ. 



66 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

Dream not, my brother, that thou mayest find a substitute, 
or another way of being alive again. Imagine not that, after all, 
thou art not dead, and hast a life with God aside from His only 
begotten Son manifest in the flesh. Be not deceived — there is 
only one true life for the human soul, and that is the great and 
precious life to which thou art called through the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ. Other life for you and me, which is eternal, and is our 
salvation from the ruin of sin, there is not and never will be. 

II 

How this vocation shall be pursued. 

At this point it is in place to inquire how this blessed and 
holy life should be pursued? Once with God in Christ, how shall 
we conduct ourselves? The great Apostle says that we should 
"walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called." And 
what is it to walk worthy ? 

I think the Apostle would say : "Exercise constant lowliness 
and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in 
love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of 
peace; not walking as the world walks in the vanity of its mind, 
having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life 
of God, and being past feeling and given over unto lasciviousness, 
to work all the uncleanness with greediness." And I think he 
would go on to say: "What fellowship hath righteousness with 
unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness, 
and what concord hath Christ with Belial, and what agreement 
hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the 
living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in 
them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people. 
Wherefore, come out from among them and be ye separate, saith 
the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you 
and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and 
daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." Bearing on this same point 
there comes to mind sayings of our Lord : "He that is not with 
me is against me. He that gathereth not with me scattereth 
abroad." "No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate 



The Christian's Vocation 67 

the one and love the other, or he will cling to one and despise 
the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." 

In order to walk worthy of our vocation, two things, I take 
it, are necessary; one is subordination of that which is innocent 
and proper in itself, but yet temporal, to that which is heavenly 
and eternal ; the other is the giving up of that which is positively 
sinful. 

a — There must be sacrifice on our part of everything which 
is of the spirit of this world, and an everlasting keeping of the 
indifferent things precisely in that place where they rightfully 
belong. 

In the divine economy or relation of creatures some things 
have been fixed as second; while other things, according to the 
rule of eternal fitness, are always first, and there we must leave 
them and act accordingly. Otherwise we sin against God and do 
violence to our life with Him in Christ. The point I make is well 
illustrated in the case of those invited to the Gospel feast. One 
had bought some land, another some oxen, a third had entered 
the state of matrimony. The acts of these men were legitimate 
and Scriptural, but they made them the reason for declining the 
call of God and living with Him just at that time. They griev- 
ously sinned. The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of 
riches choked the Word, and they became unfruitful. 

Just here, I think it is, that our vocation suffers much by our 
conduct, and is dishonored before men. We concern ourselves 
first about what we shall eat, and drink, and with our clothing, 
precisely what the world does, instead of seeking first the King- 
dom of God and His righteousness, assured that the other things 
shall be added. This is evidenced as fact in the present day by 
very many who profess to be with God in Christ in the arrange- 
ments which they make. They are of this order : Six days in the 
week are cleared of Christan duties and work. Wide and free 
scope is given to the life of this world, business, card parties, 
shows, dances, cares of this life. Six days are apportioned for 
these things. But one day in seven is assigned for living with 
God in Christ. So it is a day of many meetings and little re- 
flection, of jostle and hurry and push. And this kind of pro- 



68 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

cedure is walking worthy of our vocation ? Temporal things first, 
eternal things second ! Such arrangement is the sheerest religious 
inconsistency; nay, more, it is the deception of sin, the paralysis 
of our life with God in Christ. "Ye cannot serve God and 
mammon." 

No wonder the Church is defamed, and the cry is raised 
against her that she has lost her power, and has sunk into a state 
of decay. There is too little walking worthy of our vocation. 
And consider for a moment what it is that we do by our practice 
of the worldly spirit, our running after the god of this world. 
We not only cast reproach on the Church and dishonor the Chris- 
tian calling, but more, we grieve the Spirit of God whereby we are 
sealed unto the day of redemption ; the Holy Spirit without whose 
gracious presence and power we would remain forever dead in 
sin, and the salvation of a crucified Christ would be of no value 
to us. The peace of God could never be our possession — the Holy 
Spirit who brought us to a conviction of guilt and to repentance 
before God, and endowed us with faith in Christ our Savior, and 
translated us unto the Kingdom where we are the recipients of 
the most precious blessings — this Holy Spirit we grieve by our 
careless and unfaithful conduct. Thus before high heaven we 
bring shame on our high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Grieve 
not the spirit of God, but walk worthy of your vocation. 

b — Once more, to walk worthy of your life with God, you 
must "put off the old man who is corrupt according to the de- 
ceitful lusts, and must put on the new man who, after God, is 
created in righteousness and true holiness." "Let no corrupt com- 
munication proceed out of your mouth. Let all bitterness and 
wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from 
you, with all malice. And be ye kind one to another, tender- 
hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath 
forgiven you." 

So will you glorify your Christian calling, and prove yourself 
to be a true disciple of our blessed Lord, a man, a woman who 
lives in perfect peace with God, and bears the mind of Christ. 



The Christian's Vocation 69 

"Ever patient, gentle, meek, 

Holy Savior, was Thy mind ; 
Vainly in myself I seek, 

Likeness to my Lord to find. 
Yet that mind which was in Thee, 
May be, must be formed in me. 

Days of toil, 'mid throngs of men, 

Vexed not, ruffled not thy soul; 
Still, collected, calm, serene, 

Thou each feeling couldst control. 
Lord, that mind which was in Thee, 

May be, must be formed in me. 

Though such griefs were Thine to bear, 
For each sufferer Thou couldst feel; 

Every mourner's burden share, 
Every wounded spirit heal; 

Savior! let that grace in me 
Form that mind which was in Thee." 

Becoming day by day, year by year, more like our once 
crucified, but now risen and exalted Lord and Savior, having 
His spirit, bearing His mind — this, this is walking worthy of our 
vocation ; this is living the life with God. 



PROVING ONESELF 

A Preparatory Sermon 

"But let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of that bread and 
drink of that cup." — I Cor. xi: 28. 

OUR service this morning is a preparatory service. It is of 
peculiar moment. It is more than an ordinary service. It 
is a special service. Its design is to fit us for a becoming cele- 
bration of the Holy Communion. By some, it may be, special 
preparation is lightly esteemed. In fact, by such persons it is 
even deemed unnecessary. Hence, as a rule, they absent 
themselves. An indifferent spiritual state is thought to be suffi- 
cient. But this low conception of the need of a careful prepara- 
tion is a reflection upon the Communion. This is, in the truth of 
its nature, an exceptional act of our Lord and Savior. There is 
nothing like it. It stands out distinct, alone among all His acts, 
both in the kingdom of nature and in the kingdom of grace. 
Besides, it is not a common meal by which we get nourishment 
and support for the natural life, but a heavenly feast out of which 
we obtain food for the nutriment of the new man in Christ Jesus. 
Very true, the same saving grace of God came to us through 
both means, Word and Sacrament, but by the sacrament of the 
Supper this grace of God is emphasized to us in a peculiar way. 
It gathers into one act the infinite fullness of redeeming love. It 
expresses in the most emphatic form the reality that Jesus Christ 
is the nourishment, not only of the spiritual nature of man, but 
also of the bodily; in short, of the whole man, the real man, the 
man of God who will be. It exhibits the most wonderful union, 
the union of nature and grace. It is itself this union, and hence 
looks to the perfection of this union in all those who believe. For 
this reason there comes to pass in the experience of those who 
partake worthily of the Supper, the highest moments of the 



Proving Oneself 71 

Christian life. These highest moments are not after the order 
of ecstatic feeling; they are a deeper and deeper consciousness 
on the part of the believing soul that, in the Christian life, there 
is being realized the eternal purpose of redemption, namely, 
perfect oneness with God both as to nature and spirit, or 
humanity in its fullness. 

These moments, when we find ourselves on the very summit 
of Holy Communion, are the most precious in Christian experi- 
ence. Their value is beyond all price. What less than an un- 
bounded appreciation of them should every believing soul possess ! 
To be with our Savior in that incomparable nearness which is the 
glory of the Holy Supper, is to have an experience of incon- 
ceivable worth, and without which the Christian life moves along 
in weakness and much doubt — without which there is the loss of 
the highest good. 

In addition there comes the matter of serious responsibility 
to those who partake of the Supper. We should know that for 
the manner according to which we partake we are most respon- 
sible. It is not a case of indifference as to the attitude of our 
hearts. The Supper does not work life and salvation in our souls 
whether we be attentive or otherwise. By no means. It is not an 
instrument of magic. If, therefore, we come to the Table of the 
Lord thoughtlessly, carelessly, in an idle manner, with unbelief 
stirring in our hearts, we never can get as our own that which 
is given us. And for this want, which comes about through our 
own free act, we are responsible, and become involved in the 
deepest guilt. 

In view of this consequence, I must say that a suitable prep- 
aration is necessary. In laying this statement before you, I 
raise two questions: I. How can such preparation be made? 
II. What is the reason for it? 

I 

How can such preparation be made? 

Doubtless this question has already occurred to your minds. 
What is a suitable preparation ? I answer : A state of heart and 



72 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

mind which will readily appropriate that which is given in the 
Holy Communion. 

How can this state be obtained ? My reply is : By self ex- 
amination. By this exercise we come to know ourselves in the 
reality of our life. So far as I am able to discern, it is the only 
method for self-knowledge. ''Know thyself," is an old maxim, 
and is applicable not only in the natural sphere, but also in the 
religious. Self-examination is a looking inward, taking note of 
that which pertains to ourself as such, finding out the real person 
we are, ascertaining the actual individual, the temper, spirit, 
motives, aims, disposition, and hidden preferences which 
characterize our inner life. To know ourself as we actually are, 
and not as the outward exhibition would lead others to judge us, 
is a great matter. For ourselves, individually taken, it is vital. 
Without it we are not and will not become what we ought to be. 
This is specifically true in the case of our attitude toward God, 
especially as He stands for us in Jesus Christ. I think too often 
we are little aware of our spiritual state. This comes about 
chiefly, I may say entirely, through the blinding, deceptive in- 
fluences of our sinful nature. True, we are Christ's followers, 
the professed people of God. It is to be presumed that we really 
are new creatures in Christ; and yet, owing to the force of sin 
in our life, we may become indifferent in Christian practice, in- 
sensible to Christian duty, satisfied with an external religious pro- 
fession, and mightily concerned about temporal things to the 
neglect of the things which are unseen and eternal. Then our 
real attitude toward God is of little concern to us. We think we 
are pretty fair Christians, good enough for this world, and for 
entrance into the world beyond. Like the man mentioned in the 
Scripture, we run over the whole decalogue and declare ourselves 
to be without blame. Although we omit many of the plain duties 
of the Gospel, and have little, if any, care about the nature and 
growth of the good life within us by the grace of God ; although 
we take little interest in the concerns of the Redeemer's Kingdom 
and in the worship of the sanctuary ; although we keep away, as 
a rule, from preparation for Holy Communion and from the 
Communion itself ; still we judge ourselves to be pleasing children 



Proving Oneself 73 

of our Heavenly Father. We are satisfied with ourselves as mem- 
bers of the Church of Christ. Such is the blinding influence of 
sin in our hearts, that we know not what our spiritual state is. 

The thing necessary is that we take an inventory of our 
spiritual goods, that we know what we have and what we do not 
have. It is above all things vital to us that we come to an honest 
understanding with respect to our practical relation to Christ. 
What are our inner choices — those choices which determine the 
trend of our religious life? Are they often sinful? Do we 
actually, like the poor sinner who prostrated herself at the 
Savior's feet, truly love Him who loved us and gave Himself 
for us? Do we love Him supremely? Are you able to say, 
"There is none whom I desire beside thee. Thou art my joy, my 
hope, my life; on Thee I cast my soul." 

"Jesus, I my cross have taken, 
All to leave and follow Thee; 

********* 

Perish every fond ambition, 

All I've sought or hoped or known, 
Yet how rich is my condition; 

God and heaven are still my own." 

Suppose we sit down with prayerful hearts and look into 
our life as lived by us during the past three months. What a 
revelation appears ! How much we find that is unseemly ! How 
far, at times, we have been from God! How seldom we have 
engaged in heavenly communion ! How little we have been at 
the mercy seat — 

"Where Jesus sheds the oil of gladness on our heads ; 
A place than all beside more sweet, 
The blood-stained mercy seat." 

How much that is sinful has crept into our thoughts, our 
desires ! How often we have wounded our most precious Friend, 
the Savior ! What offenses against the goodness and love of our 
God we have committed ! What a catalog of wrong doing stands 
before us ! It is astonishing. What a guilt is charged against us ! 



74 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

It is appalling. To know our spiritual life as it appears to the 
eye of God, its faults, its blemishes, its sins — what a disclosure 
of our real spiritual selves ! 

This knowledge, painful as it is, is most useful. Without 
it spiritual declension will continue, and our souls be plunged into 
deeper guilt. But when, with prayerful hearts under the illumi- 
nating operation of the Holy Spirit, we realize the true condition 
of our heart, self-examination leads us to repentance. 

And what is repentance? Repentance unto life, it has well 
been said, "is a saving grace whereby out of the true sense of his 
sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, the sinner, 
with grief and hatred of his sin, turns from it unto God, with 
full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience." Repentance 
is not, as some suppose, penitence. It is vastly more. Penitence 
is simply a feeling of sorrow for sin, whereas repentance is an 
act, a revolutionary act by which the course of our life is radically 
changed. It is the positive movement of the soul toward God 
and away from sin. It makes the new creature with whom old 
things have no interest, and all things have become new. Re- 
pentance is that movement of the soul, under the power of the 
Holy Spirit, by which the lukewarm in their service to Christ 
return to their first love. It is not a mere feeling of hatred, but 
the great act of the soul by which it abandons every sort of sinful 
life, and faces toward God. It may be that sometimes we ac- 
knowledge and lament, and think we are exercising a real penitence 
for our poor rate of Christian living, but, unfortunately, it is not 
a sorrow which arises out of a poignant sense of guilt; and for the 
clear reason that such feeling never moves us to abandon our 
wayward course. We condemn ourselves and say, "I know I 
am not living as a Christian should live, but still, I will keep on 
in my old way until some day when circumstances change, and 
it will be more convenient for me to attend to the duties of my 
Christian profession." There is the avowal of a certain kind of 
penitence, which, as Paul says, works death, but no repentance 
unto life. 

True repentance has two sides : One is that of godly sorrow, 
a deeply felt repentance of the soul for its own unfaithfulness, 



Proving Oneself 75 

its waywardness, its unstable poise, its connivance at sin and its 
submission to the spirit of the world. The other is that act of the 
will by which we lay hold of and appropriate to our salvation the 
Savior of sinners. This is faith, that simple act of trust of the 
penitent soul which clings to Jesus who loves us with all His 
great heart, and is mighty to save. 

Brethren, we are about to confess our sins, both of com- 
mission of transgression and omission of duty, to God in the 
presence of one another. This confession, if it is of any value, 
must be the confession of the heart, springing out of the ex- 
perience of true repentance. Otherwise it will be only mockery 
before God, and leave us without forgiveness — a most deplorable 
state in which to be. Let us examine ourselves by the help of 
the Holy Spirit, that we may turn from our sins and believe the 
promise of the Gospel. This will be a suitable preparation, and 
so "let us eat of that bread and drink of that cup." 

II 

What is the reason for a suitable preparation in coming to 
the Table of the Lord? 

It is sometimes said that the Holy Communion is merely a 
memorial of the sufferings and death of Christ, the observance 
of which is calculated to awaken in the believer's heart tender 
feelings and pious emotions, and thus move him to earnest devo- 
tion and warm love for his Lord and Savior. "As oft as ye do 
this, do it in remembrance of me." 

I question whether, in the sense according to which the 
memorial idea of the Supper is entertained, it is a memorial. 
It is plainly said, not in remembrance of my sufferings and death, 
but of "me." And who is this "me" whom we are to remember? 
Merely the person who suffered and died on the Cross? I am 
sure He meant more than that; for Paul says: "Who is he 
that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is 
risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also 
maketh intercession for us." It is not merely the Christ who 



76 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

died who is to be brought to our remembrance, but also the Christ 
who rose again, who is at the right hand of God, who maketh 
intercession for us. 

The high priestly work of our Savior consists of two parts : 
First, that of an offering unto God for our sins, that is, propi- 
tiation ; second, intercession. But the intercession mentioned by 
the Apostle could not be without the resurrection and the session 
at the right hand of God in closest relation to the Father. Cer- 
tainly the remembrance of Christ is to be a remembrance of Him 
as He is for us our sacrifice and an ever living intercessor. The 
remembrance is not of a dead, but of a living Christ. As He 
Himself says, "I am He that was dead, and am alive again, and, 
behold, I am alive forevermore." This is the Redeemer who 
avails for our redemption — the living Christ. Eternal love in the 
person of Christ ever seeks to give its real self in its infinite 
fullness to sinful men. It provides the sacrifice that must be made 
in order that the Divine justice in its claims against the sinner 
might be satisfied. In this wise the obstacle to eternal love giving 
itself to the believing soul is forever removed, and the way made 
clear for the communication of itself in the entirety of its in- 
carnate existence. Jesus Christ, who is incarnate love, who came 
to seek and save the lost, offered Himself, through the eternal 
Spirit, once for all unto God a sacrifice for human sin, in order 
that He might give Himself to the penitent, believing soul as 
living bread and water, its nourishment unto eternal life. This 
offering and giving of Himself to those who believe, for the 
perfecting of their life with God in Christ, is the eternal pur- 
pose of His mission as the Redeemer of sinful men. 

The expression of this intent as an ever present fact is the 
meaning of the Holy Supper and the pre-eminent reason for its 
institution. The Holy Communion is, therefore, not an empty 
form, but that act of our crucified, risen and glorified Redeemer 
by which He offers and gives Himself, not figuratively or by 
proxy, but in reality, to those who put their trust in Him, that 
they may live and grow in the life of God. 

When, therefore, tomorrow evening you come together at 
the Supper, it will be to receive the body and blood of Christ 



Proving Oneself 77 

under the forms of bread and wine. But since His human 
nature, now glorified, is inseparable from His divine nature, you 
will receive Christ according to both natures, for so He offers 
and gives Himself. As He offered Himself unto God in atone- 
ment for our sins according to both natures in their inseparable 
union, so He offers and gives Himself to us in the Holy Com- 
munion. What He offered to God, namely, Himself, that same 
He offers and gives to us in the Holy Communion. Less He will 
not do ; more He could not do. 

But to receive that which is offered is one thing; to appro- 
priate it is quite another. To appropriate it is to eat and drink 
worthily. To receive and not to appropriate is to eat and drink 
unworthily. In that case we become guilty of the body and blood 
of Christ, and heap on ourselves the greater condemnation. But 
we appropriate by faith, and by faith only, Christ our Savior who 
is to us life and salvation. Without faith we despise and put 
to open shame the blessed Redeemer who offers and gives Him- 
self in the fullness of eternal love in the sacrament of the Supper. 
How we should search and probe our hearts, therefore, in the 
light of God's Word, and at the mercy seat confess our sins 
and plead for pardon, that we come not to the Table of our Savior 
with unbelieving hearts, and so eat and drink unworthily. On 
the contrary, if we heartily repent, and come to the Communion 
with hearts aglow with faith, how joyous and precious will the 
hour be, and what an imperishable nourishment our souls will 
have! Then our life in God will be quickened, renewed, made 
so vigorous and strong that we can press on toward the mark 
for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, and 
run the race of eternal life with increasing success. 

Brethren, presently we will make confession of our sins in 
the presence of one another before God. Let it be a confession 
of the heart, and not merely of the lips, so that, when the min- 
ister of the Gospel declares, on the authority of God's Word, the 
forgiveness of sin to those who do sincerely repent, it may be 
our forgiveness. 



78 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

Let this be the voice of our soul: 

"With broken heart and contrite sigh, 
A trembling sinner, Lord, I cry; 
Thy pardoning grace is rich and free; 

God, be merciful to me! 

1 smite upon my troubled breast, 
With deep and conscious guilt oppressed, 
Christ and His Cross my only plea; 

O God, be merciful to me ! 

No alms nor deeds that I have done, 
Can for a single sin atone; 
To Calvary alone I flee; 
O God, be merciful to me." 

And let this be the resolution of our hearts : 

"Just as I am without one plea, 
But that Thy blood was shed for me, 
And that Thou bid'st me come to Thee, 
O Lamb of God, I come, I come. 

Just as I am and waiting not 

To rid my soul of one dark blot; 

To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot, 

O Lamb of God, I come, I come. 

Just as I am Thou wilt receive, 
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve, 
Because Thy promise I believe, 
O Lamb of God, I come, I come." 

Blessed Lord, we turn from our lukewarmness and our sins ; 
heal our backslidings ; help us to take Thee to our poor hearts 
as Thou dost offer and give Thyself to us in the Holy Com- 
munion. Amen. 



GRATITUDE AOT> COURAGE 

An Anniversary Sermon* 
"He thanked God and took courage." — Acts xxviii: 15. 

PAUL was on his way to Rome, a prisoner. The voyage had 
been stirring. The vessel in which he first sailed was 
wrecked, but the crew and passengers all escaped safe to land. 
After a delay of three months on the Island of Melita, now 
called Malta, he departed in a ship of Alexandria, and in a short 
time arrived at Appii Forum and the Three Taverns. Here some 
of the brethren from Rome met him, "whom when he saw, 
he thanked God and took courage." 

He thanked God. Two facts prompted him to this devotion : 
First, the voyage, though dangerous, had not been attended with 
any personal harm; second, the coming of brethren from Rome 
to greet him showed their strong sympathy for him in his tribu- 
lation. He saw that they were not ashamed to recognize him pub- 
licly, although in bonds, going to be tried at the bar of Caesar. 
He was now in a situation where the manifestation of love on 
the part of the Church would afford him real comfort. 

He needed sympathy. When he saw these Roman brethren, 
he perceived how genuine was their interest in him. He knew 
that their coming out to meet him was no mere formality, but 
a hearty expression of their interest in his welfare, and their 
love for him as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It 
was not popular to show any esteem for a man like Paul, es- 
pecially for a man who was under arrest and on his way to the 
judgment seat of a haughty emperor. Christianity was set at 
naught by the wise men, and the mighty, and the noble. The 



*This sermon is printed as an example of Dr. Ort's practical method 
of sermonizing in his younger days, when he was in the active pastorate. 

— Editor. 



80 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

adherents of the Gospel were eyed with suspicion. It was not 
altogether safe to be very open in a confession of Christ. 
Especially was it somewhat dangerous to show regard for one 
like the great Apostle who was now in the clutches of the Roman 
law. Some of the brethren, however, could not delay until the 
Apostle had arrived in the city, before they waited on him and 
expressed their kind greeting. They hastened to meet him and 
give asurance of their earnest love for the distinguished prisoner. 
Their sympathy was true. Paul knew it to be from their heart. 
He was cheered. 

"He thanked God." Had his heart failed him at any time 
during the past two years? When he set sail for Rome, did he 
tremble? Through the voyage did he sometimes have a feeling 
of dread to appear before the cruel Nero? When he saw these 
brethren from Rome, and felt the comforting impulse of their 
sympathy, his spirit revived, and he grew all the more fearless 
to meet the bloody tyrant. He felt the stronger to go up to 
Rome and submit his appeal to the inhuman Caesar. If he must 
suffer, this he could now do more cheerfully. If he must die at 
the hands of violent men, this he could now submit to with an 
intenser joy. 

There is real power in sympathy ; a power to nerve the soul, 
quiet fears, to make firm, to incite one to play the hero. Paul 
experienced this power at the Three Taverns. When he saw the 
brethren, he took courage. 

One year ago today, in the providence of God, I came here 
and took my stand in your midst as your pastor. Are there any 
reasons why we should imitate the Apostle's conduct : thank God 
and take courage? This question can be easily answered. We 
need only glance over our history as a congregation during the 
past twelve months to ascertain what progress has been made, 
and what has been done which is truly for the glory of God. No 
doubt, much more might have been accomplished. Perhaps our 
earlier expectations have not been altogether realized. We may 
have thought to see, at the end of the pastoral year, a better state 
of affairs than that which actually prevails. We may have im- 
agined that a sort of magical prosperity would instantly spring 



Gratitude and Courage 81 

up, that now we would be a powerful congregation, and our 
Church filled to its utmost capacity. These are dreams, however, 
in which I have not indulged. Great expectations are usually 
formed on the beginning of a pastoral relation. When the min- 
ister is somewhat of a stranger, his voice new, his presence 
unfamiliar, it is expected that the pews will be quickly filled and 
a multitude be gathered into the Church. 

Some people have much faith in meteors. But were there no 
stars fixed in the sky whose steady light dissolves the pitchy 
darkness, that darkness would always envelope the earth in the 
night season. The flashing of the meteor quickly vanishes. The 
building hastily reared is, at best, but a temporary structure. 
There may be the popular sermon, the glib-tongued orator, the 
crowded house, and yet for permanent results, nothing more than 
the amusing lecture and the amused multitudes at the Lyceum. 
Substantial success depends on something more than newness. 
In Church work and Church life there is oftentimes overlooked 
the fact of conjunction between the divine and human elements. 
The conditions of real prosperity are supposed to be those which 
enter into any secular business ; whereas the truth is, that it is 
"not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord." 

There are human means which shall be used for planting 
and watering the Gospel seed; but God gives the increase. 
Certain agencies have been appointed for carrying on the work 
of the Gospel, building up the churches and saving souls. Quite 
prominent among these is the ministry. But it is plain that no 
effectual work can be done where the help of the Spirit is absent. 
There may be showy planting and watering; Paul and Apollos 
may be the pastors ; but if the divine aid is not present, no healthy 
enduring growth can ensue. In Church work the largeness of 
success will always be in proportion to the faith exercised. Ac- 
cording to your faith so it will be. As a rule, it can safely be 
said that the growth of any congregation depends on faith. Care 
must be had, however, that it be not faith which is passive, 
but an active faith; a faith which stirs up the soul and incites 
the believer to enlist in earnest practical work; a faith which 
makes a congregation to be a working Church. 



82 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

If, then, our highest expectations have not been realized, we 
need form out of this no reason for disappointment. On the 
other hand, we should rather reproach ourselves for a lack of 
earnest, living faith. Doubtless we can all see now where mis- 
takes have been made, where many of our efforts might have 
been improved, and where opportunities were allowed to pass by 
without being seized. But this is a most common experience, and 
instead of giving reasons for despondency, furnishes wise lessons 
for the future. If we have been cold in the Christian life; if 
negligent ; if unconcerned ; if possessed of no real interest in the 
business of the King; if without as anxious care for souls as for 
our own salvation ; if satisfied with a mere formal attention to 
duty; if more careful about the things of self than the Kingdom 
of Christ; then we should heartily repent of these our short- 
comings, and do our first work over. 

I will not consume time speaking about the omissions of the 
past. That is now no matter of concern to us. It would be idle 
to waste the moments in lamenting over the "might have beens." 
The complaint is stereotyped. At the most there is nothing in 
it worthy of attention. However large our success may be, still, at 
the end of the year, we always see some things that might have 
been done otherwise; and perhaps, if they were done that way, 
would have proved to be serious blunders. 

Aside from all this, there are good reasons why we should 
thank God and take courage. Any one who has been an attendant 
of this Church cannot fail to observe that, during the year, there 
has been a steady increase in the attendance. Many strangers 
have been present. Young people have come in larger and 
larger numbers. This to me has been an encouraging fact. The 
future congregation will be composed of the youth of the present. 
A few years hence, and many who are now the standard bearers 
will have passed away, and their places, if occupied at all, must 
be filled by the young people of today. A Church, therefore, that 
can succeed in gathering a goodly company of young people into 
its membership, is destined to live, grow strong, and flourish. It 
is a fact for rejoicing that this class is attending our Church in 
such large numbers. We bid them welcome, and say, "Come 
thou with us, and we will do thee good." 



Gratitude and Courage 83 

The matter of greatest moment in any congregation is its 
spiritual state. The temporal condition may be excellent, the 
membership large, and outwardly church affairs may be flourish- 
ing, but if piety is at a discount, if practical religion is slighted, 
there is cause for deep concern, and at the same time evidence 
of unhealthy conditions. The strong Church is the spiritual 
Church. The truly influential congregation is the one whose 
members are imbued with a spirit of true piety. In that case it is 
indeed a city set on a hill, a light in the world. There may be the 
pomp of ceremony, the form of devotion, but without spirituality 
there can be no Gospel power. The Kingdom of God is not in 
meat and drink, but in power. It comes not with observation, 
but is established in the heart. It is not here nor there, but within 
us the power of God unto salvation. The glory of a congrega- 
tion is its spiritual might. 

I do not mean to say that temporal adjuncts are nothing. I 
mean to emphasize the truth that godliness is the life of the true 
Church of Jesus Christ and is supreme. According to the opinion 
of the world, the contrary is the right view. The congregation 
which has a magnificent building, millionaires among its member- 
ship, and aristrocracy for its bone and sinew, is the one which 
commands respect, and wields an inestimable power. The 
preacher who has great wealth at his back is the minister of high 
parts. The silver-tongued orator, who holds entranced the listen- 
ing worshippers, the godliness of himself and people and their 
spiritual power are expressed in terms of dollars and cents. Now 
dollars and cents have their place in the great work of evangeliz- 
ing the world, but dollars and cents can never be real substitutes 
for the enduement of the Holy Spirit. 

Into this error the Laodiceans fell. In spiritual things they 
were lukewarm. Because of their confirmed worldliness, the 
Great Head of the Church addressed to them this sharp language : 
"Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods, and 
have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched, 
and miserable, and poor, and blind and naked, I counsel thee to 
buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and 
white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame 



84 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

of thy nakedness do not appear ; and that thou annoint thine eyes 
with eye salve that thou mayest see." 

And now what shall we say of our spiritual condition? A 
fair statement requires me to say that, during the past few 
months, there has been considerable improvement. There are 
those here who realize that they have made much progress in the 
divine life. They have a clearer apprehension of what is the 
true import of the Christian walk; they realize more fully that 
the things of Christ are above the things of the world ; they take 
a deeper interest in the work of the Gospel; they are more con- 
cerned about the salvation of souls ; they are more anxious about 
their own salvation; in short, they are more spiritual. As evi- 
dence for this statement, I may cite the fact of their regular at- 
tendance at the services, and their manifest interest in them ; that 
they think enough about these things to speak of them to others, 
and to entreat their friends to come with them to the house of 
the Lord. The Wednesday evening prayer meeting has been well 
attended. Those who have been there have found it good to be 
present. They have gained spiritual strength. 

The preaching of the past year has kept steadily in view the 
development of earnest piety. Christ and Him crucified has been 
set forth plainly, simply, earnestly, that the whole congregation 
might be brought to experience the power of His grace. I believe 
the effort has not been without fruit. Certainly some souls have 
been lifted to a higher plane, and have this day a larger experience 
of the fullness of saving grace. 

It may be that some few have made no appreciable advance, 
and have been content to live on in the same careless and formal 
way which has characterized their past religious career. But, on 
the other hand, there are many who have been thinking more 
seriously, are striving to live nearer to Christ, and have a livelier 
interest in spiritual concerns than they had months ago. I cast 
no reflection on the past, but simply assert the spirit of the truth 
that the best in this life can still grow better. For our spiritual 
growth we have good reason to thank God. 

Before leaving this part of my subject, let me call your at- 
tention again to the high importance of piety and the experience 



Gratitude and Courage 85 

of a godliness at which the world cannot cavil. In the name o£ 
my Master, I urge this congregation to lay aside every weight,, 
and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and run with patience 
the race set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher 
of our faith. Break with careless religious habits, neglect not the 
great salvation, subdue the spirit of indifference, take up your 
cross ; make it a rule to be in your pew on the Lord's Day ; give 
us your presence at the Wednesday night meeting, and resolve 
to attend the half hour service on Sunday evening. The spiritual 
state of your hearts is no small matter. On it depend the issues 
of eternity, the peace of your dying hour, your acceptance with 
God, and coronation in the day of final judgment. Let not the 
suggestions of depraved hearts deceive any of you into the belief 
that you can get on well in the Christian life and yet be indifferent 
to spiritual things. Remember that you are personally responsi- 
ble. No one can answer for you. No one can be made a valid 
excuse for you to live a careless, inactive life. Rise to the high 
sphere of the Gospel. Hear the voice of your God as He calls 
to you, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, 
and all things shall be added unto you." Make your salvation a 
matter of personal attention, a personal faith. Seize the rich 
opportunities which a merciful God has cast in your way. Use 
the means and the only means which He has appointed to build 
up a Christian character, and develop all your spiritual powers 
to the full stature of manhood in Jesus Christ. Do this! for 
more than worldly interests are at stake. Do this ! for more 
than this life is involved ; more than material things are in the 
balance. Do this ! or else thou wilt lose thy soul and become a 
castaway. 

During the past twelve months forty persons have been re- 
ceived into membership in this congregation. I commend them 
to the attention of the Church. Many of them are young in 
years and beginners in the Christian life. They will need your 
care and sympathy and prayers. Bear in mind they are souls 
for whom Christ died and on that account demand our concern. 
Pass them not without a word of cheer. They will meet with 
divers temptations. They will be assailed by the evil influence of 



86 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

the world. They may make mis-steps, give them a kind word. 
Take them by the hand, and lovingly counsel them to be faithful 
and to shun every form of evil. They are the lambs of the fold 
who need our watchful care. 

Since I came among you three of your number have gone to 
their eternal rest, Mrs. Kneeble, Mrs. Vagt and Mr. Williams. 
They are not here. They have ceased from their earthly labors. 
In their homes they have left a vacancy which never can be filled. 
They always will be missed. Mrs. Vagt was scarcely beyond the 
prime of life. She has left behind an affectionate husband and 
a family of children, who find life to be sad and lonely without 
her. May the Holy Comforter administer to them the consola- 
tions of divine grace ! Mrs. Kneeble was well advanced in life. 
Her husband had preceded her into eternity. She had been many 
years a member of this Church. Of her family only one remains, 
who is now left without the companionship of a mother, 
who loved with a true mother's love. May the compassionate 
Savior comfort her grief -stricken heart with the joys of His 
Gospel ! Brother Williams recently passed from among us 
at the ripe age of more than fourscore years. During a long 
while he was an officer of this Church. He leaves to mourn his 
loss a partner of forty-six years. She is now alone to sorrow 
over the loss of him who shared with her the trials and joys of 
life. May the God of the widow pour out on her the rich bless- 
ings of his everlasting love! 

These all have died in the triumphs of the Gospel. They 
have finished their course, they have kept the faith, and have 
received their crown of righteousness which the Lord, the 
righteous Judge, will give to all who love His appearing. Be 
admonished, brethren, by those providences that it is appointed 
unto man to die. Be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think 
not the Son of man cometh. God only knows how near death 
is to some of you. It may be at your very door. Of this you may 
be sure, that some one of you will be the next of this congrega- 
tion to die. WTio is ready to go ? 

No department of Church work in our day has a more vital 
bearing on the prosperity of the congregation than the Sunday 



Gratitude and Courage 87 

School. True, it cannot supercede catechetical instruction; still, 
it is an agency which, if rightly and vigorously used, will con- 
tribute greatly to the upbuilding of the Church. It is a power 
which can be used in a most efficient way for gathering together 
children and young people. Through the Sunday School hun- 
dreds can be reached and brought under the influence of the 
Gospel, who otherwise would, perhaps, never be gathered into 
the Church. Many of those who have become devoted followers 
of Christ, and zealous workers in His Vineyard are among the 
people of God, largely through the instrumentality of the Sunday 
School. The multitudes who are received into Church member- 
ship year after year, first learned to make their way to the place 
of worship on the Lord's Day through the attractions of this help. 
Children of religious parents are laid hold of by this means, and 
finally become Christians, who might have grown up amid the 
practices of sin and swelled the forces of evil. 

The Sunday School is not a place of mere past-time — a place 
where little boys and girls may go to be kept off the streets for an 
hour, or away from home. Here the Word of God is read, and 
if nothing more was done, still some seed would fall into young 
hearts so susceptible of impression. But it is not a place for little 
boys and girls only. Those of any age will find its services profit- 
able. Here every one can study the story of the Cross, and gain 
broader views of Jesus and His Salvation. Here the foundation 
of a godly life can be laid, and material gathered with which 
to rear the superstructure. Sunday School work in our Church 
has progressed during the past year with considerable spirit. At 
the opening of the services in the Autumn, the hour of meeting 
was changed from afternoon to morning. There were naturally 
some doubts as to the wisdom of the change. The growth of 
the school has proved that it was no mistake. The attendance 
has increased, and new scholars have been enrolled. The present 
prosperity bids fair to continue. 

There is, however, much room for more pupils. And I take 
this occasion to appeal to the young people especially to give the 
matter of attendance at our school their very serious attention. 
There are many of the younger members of this Church who 



88 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

could be with us in the lecture room on Sunday morning, if they 
only would. Why not, my friends ? Do you know that the Sun- 
day School is a field where you can do great good. Your presence 
will have a tendency to bring others. It will contribute much to 
the life of the school. It will add to its vigor. It will augment 
its power. Can you not find it in your hearts to come? How 
much you lose! What splendid advantages for improving both 
your minds and hearts you let go by remaining away ! Is it pos- 
sible that this work in nowise concerns you ? That you care noth- 
ing for this Church where you promised God to serve Him with 
all your soul ? Can it be that you have no interest in these things, 
and that you imagine yourself to have graduated from an active, 
practical Christian life before you have actually ever commenced 
it ? I do not believe it. I am persuaded better things of you. I 
am willing to think that in your hearts there is a desire to be in 
the Sunday School — you would like to be there. If you only 
were there, you would be fully satisfied. To come may require 
a little effort; but it would be worth while to make it. It may 
necessitate your rising a half hour earlier in the morning. Do it. 
It may demand your making somewhat different arrangements 
than those which you now observe. It will then be better to change 
your arrangements. I appeal to you to come to the Sunday School 
for your own sake. You have immortal souls that need training 
for heaven. The Sunday School will prove to you a valuable help 
in this work. I appeal to you for Christ's sake. Think how much 
He did for you ! What sacrifice He made ! What time He de- 
voted to your interest, and what you owe to Him ! Give Him at 
least some of your hours. If you will not do any more, give Him 
His own day in service and work. He wants you in the Sunday 
School. There you can serve Him. There you can find some- 
thing to do. There are a hundred and more of you. Oh, what a 
power you can be for Christ and His Church ! I warmly plead 
with you to give your presence and help. 



NOTE — The manuscript of Dr. Ort ends here. From its abrupt end- 
ing, it is evident that part of the sermon has been lost. 



II 

DOCTRINAL DISCUSSIONS 



II 

DOCTRINAL DISCUSSIONS 



JUSTIFYING FAITH 

JUSTIFYING faith is the vital principle of the Gospel. It is 
not a mere doctrine worked out by reflection, and given 
definite limit and logical form; but it is a fact revealed in the 
inspired Scriptures and certified in the Christian consciousness, 
and is, therefore, known in experience. It precedes dogma, and 
is conditional for the framing and development of Christian truth 
into a system of well defined statements. 

As a doctrine justifying faith stands with other doctrines 
in a certain logical order, and is, therefore, one among many, a 
subject for the belief and examination of the intellectual under- 
standing. But as a principle justifying faith is before the mental 
conception, the formal exhibition of saving truth, and is the rule 
according to which the construction is made. It is the light in 
which the spiritual understanding moves and acts. 

And this is the essential principle of the Gospel. It is the 
Gospel. For the great Apostle emphatically declares, "the Gospel 
is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." 
Abstract this principle, or make it subordinate, or regard it as 
only a part of the body of doctrine, and you thereby either set 
aside entirely or push far into the background the divine plan 
for the recovery of sinful man. What is this plan? Salvation 
by grace through faith in the crucified and risen Jesus. 

Again, justifying faith is the fundamental principle of evan- 
gelical religion. Evangelical religion recognizes the fact that the 



92 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

source and cause of salvation are entirely outside the individual 
sinner. An historical Christ is necessary, a Jesus, who is the 
propitiation for sin, the vicarious sacrifice, the one Mediator be- 
tween God and man, the living Redeemer, the Reconciler. At the 
same time evangelical religion observes that Christ, with all His 
treasures of grace, can be to men life and salvation only when 
they appropriate Him as He offers Himself to them. Merely to 
view His agony in the garden and His sufferings on the Cross 
as a remedial transaction, will not avail. God in Christ has made 
provision for man's eternal redemption. This stands as the 
central fact of human history, and will everlastingly abide as the 
chiefest of historical verities. Nothing I may do or be through 
all the ages can effect its independent reality. But I am a per- 
sonal being, free to live in harmonious union with God, or in 
endless separation from Him. Christ, with everything He rep- 
resents to me, is the All-sufficient One through whom and in 
whom I can have my life in God. It remains for me to receive 
Him, not merely the formal announcement or doctrine concern- 
ing Him, not any impersonal statement or proposition, but Christ 
Himself, the personal Jesus, once crucified and buried, but now 
risen and alive forevermore. When, therefore, by a personal 
faith, a faith which involves all the powers of my soul, knowing, 
feeling and willing, I appropriate the Christ of the Gospel, there 
is present in my consciousness the testimony, by the Holy Spirit, 
that my sins are forgiven, and I know myself to have peace with 
God. 

Now I can appreciate what the Apostle means when he de- 
clares: "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not 
I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live, I live by 
the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself 
for me." Faith rests entirely in a present Christ, one who offers 
Himself to the soul, its only life and hope. This Christ it finds in 
the Gospel ; and He is there as the unspeakable gift of God to be 
appropriated by a personal act of the soul, not in the form of a 
mere intellectual assent, but by a confiding trust of the heart. 

It remains to be observed that a clear, practical apprehension 
and experience of justifying faith is necessary for the Christian 



Justifying Faith 93 

Church today, because it is only by this principle that the truth 
in Christianity can be known with highest certainty. Certainty, 
I say, for this is the demand in spiritual knowledge as well as in 
natural, in religion as well as in science. 

Two forms of human thought are extant. One looks out- 
ward and fixes sole attention on the natural; the other directs 
its attention inward and recognizes supreme authority and the 
determiner of all certainty to be the intellectual. The first knows 
only nature to be real existence. Beyond this, it asserts, the 
human mind cannot go. Natural law produces everything which 
is — the stars, the world, man, and human history with all its 
startling facts. This law is fixed, unchangeable. No outside or 
superior power could anywhere or at any time along the course 
of natural development thrust in its energy, and modify or change 
the facts of nature or the life of man. A union, hence, of natural 
and supernatural cannot occur. The miracle of the incarnation 
is absolutely impossible. Jesus of Nazareth, like every individual 
of the human race, is only the product of material force. Chris- 
tianity, which we believe to be the revelation of the eternal per- 
sonal God, is made by this view to vanish in the dreamings of an 
unsettled brain. The only religion given a weary, struggling 
humanity is that which says : "Obey the laws of nature ; other- 
wise take the consequences" — a religion without love, without 
hope, without faith, whose teaching is : "Eat, drink and be 
merry, for tomorrow you die." 

This is naturalism, a kind of thinking in the present time 
which is powerfully and widely influential. It reaches every grade 
and sphere of human life, and is the master spirit in the busy 
movements, the toils and struggles of a restless, disappointed hu- 
manity. It not only sports itself in an un-Christian world, but also 
wields increasing power over the practical life of the Church, 
and mars the faith of many. It blurs the distinction between 
evangelical religion and worldliness, substitutes the ways and 
methods of the natural man for the plain, efficient means of a 
Divine Christianity, and calls man to the seeking of his destiny 
by appeals to his sensous nature or aesthetic taste, instead of by 
the pungent preaching of the truth as it is in Jesus Christ. Ac- 



94 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

cording to this scheme nothing is certain except that which is 
determined by the fixed and final law of the natural world. 

The other form of skeptical thought is rationalism. This 
recognizes chiefly the subject of human knowledge, and in the 
solution of the question of certainty, points to reason as the 
supreme authority. Mention a scheme of redemption, and 
rationalism says: "The natural powers alone are sufficient for 
the attainment of man's chief good. Nothing pertains to his life 
which can prevent the ultimate reaching of his moral destiny. 
Sin is a sheer circumstance or accident, or, at most, a misfortune 
easily remedied by proper culture." 

Speak of the Christian religion as a revelation of the eternal 
God in Jesus Christ, and the New Testament as the Scripture of 
this revelation, and rationalism rejoins: "This is a human book, 
and proclaims the religion of genius. A miracle of knowledge 
is impossible. Inspiration, which arises from contact between 
the divine and human, is inconceivable. There is but one kind of 
inspiration and that is the kind which distinguishes the wise and 
great from the common herd of mankind, the enthusiasm of 
genius." 

Rationalism poses before the world as the only hope of man. 
It points him to a religion whose God is the human reason, 
whom he must solely trust, and to whose authority he must 
reverently bow; a religion in which sin is made to appear as an 
unfavorable power, and over which, by and by through his own 
sufficiency, man will gain completest victory; a religion whose 
centre is the intellect and whose bulwarks are the forms of logical 
thought. Here truth is tested like precious metal in the crucible, 
and is given the highest assurance that can ever be found in 
human experience. 

It would be idle to close your eyes against the fact that 
various phases of the rationalistic spirit are manifesting them- 
selves in the thought and life of the present generation. Every- 
where almost, in school and Church, in individual and social be- 
lief, their presence is evident. Not abruptly, suddenly, or in the 
extremest form does this spirit exhibit its power, but slowly, 
quietly, with plausible speech, it gains for itself a place in thought 



Justifying Faith 95 

and belief. At length boldly, and with radical demand, it insists 
that the old paths shall be forsaken, and that Christianity, the 
religion of miracle and grace, be given up. What it has produced 
is well known — empty pews, deserted churches, pulpits turned 
into lecture platforms where every question under heaven is 
discussed except that one about which the human soul has been 
most deeply concerned : "How can men get into right relation 
with God?" And the people as a consequence are disquieted, 
seeking rest and finding none. 

These, I say, are the products of this Christless spirit. What 
it has produced in a former generation and in a foreign land, it 
will repeat in our day and on this continent. In fact, its working 
is already manifest, and the legitimate fruits are apparent. Men 
are running to and fro, asking: "What can I believe? Where 
is the truth which satisfies? The creeds are insufficient. We 
have thought them over in a careful manner, but they do not give 
us what we want — peace and satisfaction." No wonder the cry 
comes up from every quarter, "Where shall we go for light?" 
No wonder men are talking about the decay of the Church, the 
decline of Protestantism, and the failure of Christianity ! Reason 
is usurping the throne of Christ and rejecting the witness of the 
Holy Ghost in the heart, which alone can bring the experience 
of pardon and peace with God and assurance of eternal life. 

And now, here is sensuous thought with its wide-spread in- 
fluence, on the one hand ; and, on the other hand, the intellectual 
powers of man as the supreme authority and sufficiency, ener- 
gizing themselves to supplant the Gospel of an incarnate Re- 
deemer, rob the world of a divine revelation, and leave man with- 
out a heaven-sent chart to steer his bark over a storm-tossed sea 
to the haven of eternal rest. 

What can be done, I ask, to defeat these unfriendly powers 
and vindicate the Gospel of the crucified Nazarene? How shall 
the truth in Christianity be verified for this generation? By 
argument? By the power of logic? Does this give that kind of 
certainty which is above all doubt, and is the assurance of a 
present, living reality? What is the sphere of logic? To settle 
the truth in a proposition, or to determine its relation to other 



96 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

propositions? Does it deal with the thing itself, or only with the 
conception of the thing ? Evidently the latter. True, it produces 
the conviction of certainty, but this is a conviction which pertains 
to the form of thought, and is solely for the intellectual under- 
standing. The faith it generates is mere historical belief, which 
finds its limits altogether within the compass of formal thought. 
If inquiry be pushed beyond the forms themselves to their con- 
tent, and the demand be made to verify the truth in these, the 
human understanding knows no other method than that which 
answers for the certainty of the forms. When, therefore, the 
highest ground of assurance is centered in the logical understand- 
ing, the form of truth and the truth itself are confounded with 
each other, that is, the truth is the form and the form is the 
truth. Under this conception formal Christianity and the truth 
in Christianity are the same, and, hence, certainty for the first 
is certainty for the second. But this means that the only faith 
necessary to assurance of solution is the belief of the intellect. 
In this case the chiefest stress will be laid on the logical propo- 
sitions. The historical evidences for the truth of the Sacred 
Scriptures will be marshalled in exact order and powerful array, 
and every proof be furnished necessary to convince the under- 
standing of the natural man. But, though convinced, he is still 
the natural man. With his intellect he knows the facts and 
declarations of the Scriptures, but he is yet a stranger to the 
saving power of the Gospel, which is Christ Jesus who is mighty 
to save. This is the truth, the joyful, precious truth which lies 
beyond the reach of the natural understanding, and, which, in 
its reality, never can be known by any sort of mental operation. 
It must be experienced in the heart through the witness of the 
Holy Ghost, by a faith which not merely accepts the formal 
Scriptures as authentic and credible, but, which, far beyond this, 
appropriates the saving content of the Sacred Word, the living, 
personal Jesus, who offers Himself in the Word to the lost soul 
as its life and salvation. 

The certitude which transcends every form of doubt, and 
which abides in the irrepressible conviction that the Christ of 
the Gospel is the all-sufficient Savior, arises out of a real contact 



Justifying Faith 97 

of the living, personal Word with the human soul. In this con- 
tact the heart knows Jesus, the real, personal Jesus, not simply 
an impersonal statement. The formal Scriptures, the records of 
divine revelation, point out the way, but Jesus Himself is the 
way; they give an account of the truth, but Jesus is the truth; 
they describe the life, but Jesus is the life. 

Mere contact with the record, therefore, is not enough. 
Christ and the believing soul must verily come together, if the 
great and precious truth in Christianity would be known, and a 
clear assurance of peace with God through the Holy Ghost would 
ever be a fact of personal experience. But this real contact be- 
tween Christ and the human heart can be realized only through 
the faith which receives and appropriates the Jesus who offers 
Himself to the soul as its eternal portion and highest good. 

In the pointed and powerful language of Luther: "God 
must witness to me in my heart that this is God's Word, else it 
is not determined. Through the Apostles God had this same 
Word preached, and He still has it preached. But even if the 
Archangel Gabriel were to proclaim it from heaven, it would not 
help me. I must have God's own Word. I will hear what God 
says. Men, indeed, may preach the Word to me, but God alone 
can put it into the heart, or else nothing results from it. This 
Word is certain, and though all the world should speak against 
it, yet I know that it is not otherwise. Who decides me in this ? 
Not man, but the truth alone which is so certain that no man 
can deny it." 

Justifying faith has the testimony to the truth in Christianity 
in itself and with itself, a present fact of experience; and with 
this most certain of all conviction, personal assurance, it is able 
to meet every denial of miracle, whether it be miracle of knowl- 
edge or miracle of life. To rationalism it gives the irrepressible 
answer: "I know these Scriptures to be the Word of God, be- 
cause God Himself has spoken the truth in my heart." To 
naturalism it triumphantly replies : "I know that Jesus of Naz- 
areth is God manifest in the flesh, because He has revealed Him- 
self to me as both the wisdom and power of God, in whom are 
life and light, joy and peace." 



98 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

In order to maintain the truth of the Gospel in our time, to 
win the fight of a true Christianity, and to be indeed a glorious 
power for Christ, what is necessary on our part as the people of 
God? I answer: A clear, practical apprehension of the great 
regulating principle of religion — "The just shall live by faith." 



WHAT IS OFFERED AND CONFERRED 
IN GRACE 

THE question here raised assumes that something is offered 
and conferred graciously on sinful men. Who offers and 
confers this something? God, who is eternal, personal love. 
What does He offer and confer ? That which man needs. What 
is that? Himself. 

In the outset of this discussion, I advance the proposition 
that the fundamental need of man is God. It is the one need, 
the supreme need, the all-embracing need, the need of needs. 
To have God is to have every benefit, every good. This need 
shows itself, in part at least, in all those searchings and seekings 
and yearnings after God which are so prominent in the life of 
the human soul. God is felt to be indispensable, and that 
because He is indispensable. Even a man like Lyman 
Abbott, with his vigorous repudiation of an "absentee" 
God, supports the foregoing statement. He scouts the deistic 
conception of God. He feels that he needs a God who is near at 
hand, one who is really present; not a God who is afar off, and 
who is only present, if ever at all, in a symbolic fashion. He 
insists on a real presence of Deity — a presence so entirely real 
in every way that there is nothing in essence but this presence. 
Dr. Abbott wants God, wants Him, as he thinks, in the most 
realistic way, must have Him, will have nothing else. He is not 
satisfied with an influence, or influences, most powerful influ- 
ences, all-embracing, all-enlightening, streaming forth from the 
very bosom of Deity; but God Himself in the essence of His 
being — the God who is the substance of all things; hence ever 
present in everything, always present with Dr. Abbott, and neces- 
sarily so. This is realism of the most profound type, but 
realism of natural necessity. 

But Dr. Abbott wants a redeeming, saving God. He feels 
that he needs Him, needs Him here, must have Him. He is not 
satisfied with Him being in heaven and helping us poor mortals 



100 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

at second hand ; not satisfied with a proxy or representative God, 
or a merely virtual presence. Dr. Abbott is profoundly sensible 
that he needs a helping, redeeming, satisfying God Himself 
actually in his own heart, in his own life. An absentee Redeemer 
is to him nothing. He would not be content with the idea that 
the Holy Spirit is a substitute or proxy for God in Christ. God 
in Christ cannot be present in the person or through the mediat- 
ing of the Holy Ghost, while He Himself, God in Christ, is not 
present. God in Christ and the Spirit are inseparable. If, in 
working out redemption, God in Christ accomplishes this work 
through the eternal Spirit, He certainly, in the application of re- 
demption through the Spirit, is not absent, but immanently pres- 
ent. No divine influence as a substitute or representative will 
suffice. It must be the redeeming God Himself. Dr. Abbott, so 
far as he recognizes a redeeming God, insists on His real presence. 

But, unfortunately, his God is the pantheistic, absolute Spirit 
of Hegel whose theory is as follows : In the progress of the 
world process, the impersonal Absolute reaches consciousness in 
man. Jesus is the God-man. All men also are God-men. God 
is completely conscious in Jesus. As another, Dr. Stearns, says : 
"Jesus stands to us pre-eminently the example and symbol of the 
union between God and men, which is progressively realized in 
the world process. This world process is an eternal evolution, in 
which God is ever becoming more and more self-conscious, but 
is never absolutely so. But Jesus as the God-man is not the per- 
sonal Jesus, the Christ, but only the ideal of the perfect God- 
consciousness. The actual Christ is mankind ever moving toward 
a fuller realization of this ideal." 

This kind of pantheism, as well as every other phase, is far 
from the Christian conception of God, of Jesus, and of human 
redemption. It is a most decided departure from the eternal 
truth of things. True, it emphasizes the Divine immanence, a 
most fundamental truth, but it does this so exclusively that all 
distinction between the natural and the supernatural is wiped out. 

And yet we must recognize that pantheism has, and con- 
tinues to keep, a strong hold on a large body of thinkers and 
seekers after religious truth, because of the deep conviction in 



What Is Offered and Conferred In Grace 101 

the human soul that it absolutely needs all of God it can possibly- 
appropriate ; needs Him now, needs Him here, God Himself, for 
the realization in its life of the highest good. We were perhaps 
shocked on reading Dr. Abbott's blunt statement of disbelief in 
an absentee God, but, after all, may it not have come to him as 
a reaction from that conception of the Christ which fixes Him so 
firmly in heaven that He cannot be here on earth in a real manner 
for the human soul, so that the sacraments, for instance, are 
without Him, although His acts, devoid of the very reality which 
alone can satisfy the needs of human nature and give them sub- 
stantial value. This shutting up of Christ in the eternities, and 
imagining that proxy agencies meet all requirements of the human 
soul on earth, is responsible, in large part, at least, for low views 
concerning the Gospel, for the rationalistic beliefs, and the pan- 
theistic tendencies manifest today in certain quarters. Dr. Abbott 
only reached the Beulah Land of pantheism a little sooner than a 
multitude of others who are going thither. That is about the 
only difference. 

Without designing to make any invidious comparisons, I 
may ask: In what bodies of Protestantism in America do we 
today find liberal or low views of the Gospel, rationalistic learn- 
ing, and even pantheistic tendencies? The answer is, among 
the Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians and Congregationalists. 
All of them are upholders of the doctrine of the spiritual presence 
of God in Christ or the risen and glorified Jesus, as against His 
real presence with believers : "Where two or three are gathered 
together in my name, there will I be in the midst of them;" and 
with His Church, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end 
of the age;" and in the Lord's Supper, "Take, eat; this is my 
body." In what Protestant body in America are the errors and 
heresies which I have just named not found? In the Lutheran 
Church. And this is the Church that believes in a redeeming 
God, who is really here and offers and gives Himself to the sinful, 
believing soul to be its life and salvation. 

Again, I call attention to the supreme need of human nature. 
This is God. Who and what is God ? The Apostle John says, 
"God is love." This is the highest conception of the Divine 



102 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

Being, the truest, the best. "God is love." He is so in His 
essence. Then He is a personal being. If we say God is the 
infinite, absolute, personal Spirit, then the infinite, absolute, per- 
sonal Spirit is love. And this God is triune in love; otherwise 
infinite, eternal love would not be satisfied. There would be a 
want unmet in the sphere of the Divine existence. Infinite love 
must have an infinite object to whom it may communicate itself 
absolutely. The infinite Father finds such object in the infinite 
Son, and the infinite Father and Son find it jointly in a third, 
the Holy Spirit, who realizes the unity of the Godhead in the 
eternal life of three in one. Infinite love is absolutely satisfied 
in the mutual relations of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and thus 
the eternal God is in Himself ever blessed. 

The point especially which I would note in this communica- 
tion of infinite love is that the communication, which is 
always personal, is not that of something merely like unto 
itself, but its own infinite self. If it be asked why God, 
triune in His existence, and infinitely satisfied and eter- 
nally blessed in Himself, created the universe, it must be 
answered : first, negatively, He did not bring the world into ex- 
istence in order to supply a want in Himself ; neither on account 
of a superabundance of essence which He could not control did 
the universe emanate from Him and flow into existence; but 
because He is love He was moved to call into existence that 
which is object to Him, in order that there might be that other 
than Himself into which He could pour the fullness of His being. 
It has been properly said that love is the ground of creation and 
the establishment of a kingdom of love its end. While we say 
that, on the one hand, the world exists for the glory of God, yet, 
on the other hand, it must be observed that creation is a con- 
stituted end in itself. In short, it is both end and means. In 
the attainment of its end, which is the realization of the high- 
est development possible for it, it accomplishes the glorification 
of God. Man exists for his own sake, that is, for what it is 
possible for him to become. He has a destiny to reach. It is 
inconceivably high. For this he has been capacitated. He was 
made in the image of God. It is for him to attain God-likeness in 



What Is Offered and Conferred In Grace 103 

the highest degree possible for the finite in union with the infinite. 
In other words, God, in making man, had in view the formation 
of a creature to whom He could communicate Himself in the 
fullest measure, so that there would exist beside Himself that 
which would be most like Himself. Human nature has capacity 
for the Divine. It can receive God. It can receive and hold of His 
fullness. It can do this beyond our comprehension. In the pro- 
gressive development of which it is most highly capable, it be- 
comes more and more competent to appropriate to itself larger 
and still larger communications of the fullness of Divine love. 
It can ascend from glory to glory, and increasingly take on the 
Divine fullness. 

This wonderful and exceptional capacity of human nature 
for God is evidenced in Jesus Christ, in whom the Divine and 
human touch each other in the closest union possible between 
Creator and creature. "In whom it pleased the Father that all 
fullness should dwell, and in whom dwelt the fullness of the 
Godhead bodily." This is Jesus Christ, who possesses a true 
human nature in union with a true Divine nature, by which 
unique union He reveals the astounding height which man, in 
union with God, is capable of reaching and has reached. See 
our Elder Brother at the right hand of God, and there behold 
humanity at the apex of glory. As soon as man existed, God, as 
personal love, began the communication of Himself to him. It 
could not have been otherwise. He made him, and made him 
precisely as He did, that is, in His own image, so that of all 
His works, there would be one of His creatures who could be a 
perfect other, in whom He could see Himself reflected and realize 
a peculiar delight. 

But, unfortunately, this communication between God and 
man quickly ended. Sin came into the world, into the heart and 
life of man. Separation, alienation, took place. Man turned 
from God, and would have none of His communion. Eternal 
love, however, did not abandon His masterpiece, although he 
had now fallen into ruin. God at once set in operation a method 
of recovery. The way must be cleared of all hindrance to a 
full communication of God Himself. The original design dare 



104 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

not fail. In the course of the ages Jesus Christ appears, and 
makes satisfaction to Divine justice, vindicates the claims of the 
holy law which was broken by man, suffers and dies on the 
Cross, the just for the unjust, and on the third day rises from 
the dead. On God's side the way is again open. All hindrances 
are removed. On man's side likewise. It is now possible for 
communication between heaven and earth to be restored. And so 
God, in the person of redeeming love, comes offering and giving 
Himself to the sinful man. It is a gracious offering and giving, 
for it occurs only on the ground of Christ's meritorious re- 
demptive work on behalf of a ruined world. The movement of 
God communicating Himself to the sinful creature is now under 
grace, through grace and by grace. It is composed of grace. It 
is only through and in Jesus Christ that love can communicate 
or give its fullness to sinful man. But this it seeks to do and 
does by the most earnest endeavor. Less than this it could not 
be satisfied with ; more it could not perform. God through grace 
gives to man, wrecked in sin and undeserving, the highest and 
best He can, and that is Himself. He makes the offer and be- 
stows the gift in Jesus Christ. 

If it be asked by way of emphasis, "What does God offer 
and give to the sinful human soul?" it must be answered, Jesus 
Christ. Other than Christ He has not to offer and give. Less, 
if He had it to bestow, He would not give; because He made 
man and constituted him, not for the smaller gifts of His good- 
ness, but for the highest communication of His love, that is, of 
Himself, in the person of His Son. "God so loved the world 
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The gracious 
proclamation and promise are that whosoever believeth in Christ 
receives forgiveness of sins, and by imputation the righteousness 
of Christ, and is justified. 

In this matter of justification there is the offer and bestow- 
ment of two gifts : pardon, and imputation of Christ's righteous- 
ness. But Christ Himself is our passover. Forgiveness is a 
passing over, but a passing over for a sufficient reason, which is 
the sacrificial sufferings and death, or, if you please, sacrificial 



What Is Offered and Conferred In Grace 105 

work, of Christ. He is our sacrifice, hence our passover — before 
God the forgiveness of our sins. At the same time, He is our 
righteousness before the law. When, therefore, any sinner lays 
hold of Christ by faith, he has Christ Himself ; hence his for- 
giveness before God and his righteousness. In other words, when 
God sees the sinner in Christ, and he can get there only by faith, 
He has nothing against him, and finds him only in the righteous- 
ness of Christ, and so makes declaration that he has the forgive- 
ness of his sins and the righteousness which renders him just 
before the law. And this forgiveness and this righteousness 
are Christ. Hence, what is offered and bestowed in justification 
is Christ. But this is a gift pure and simple. It is the Unspeak- 
able Gift of God. 

The same holds true in the case of regeneration. If we 
have in mind simply the thing itself, that new reality estab- 
lished in the sinful heart by the operation of the Holy Spirit, 
that constitutes the change in its character, we find again it is 
Christ. Regeneration, we say, is the beginning of the new life. 
But this life is Christ. He says of Himself, "I am the life;" 
and Paul insists that it is not he who lives, but Christ who lives 
in him. When Christ is established by faith in the sinful heart 
through the Spirit, that is the day when the sinner passes from 
death unto life, and is a new creature. 

All this is of grace ; it is grace. Christ is the grace of God. 
But I suppose the matter chiefly before our minds is, What does 
God, through the means of grace, offer and bestow? The means 
of grace are the Word and Sacraments. They are the Divine 
appointments through which ordinarily grace is offered and 
bestowed. The grace is the same in the case of the Word and 
Sacraments. It is not one kind of grace by one, and a different 
kind by the other. It is always Christ. As to Baptism and the 
Lord's Supper and the grace which is offered and conferred, the 
Lutheran Church has a definite view. By Baptism it is regen- 
eration ; by the Lord's Supper, it is the nourishment for the new 
man. 



NOTE — This discussion ends here so abruptly that it is evidently 
not complete. No more pages, however, of this particular manuscript 
are to be found. — Editor. 



DESTINY OF THE PHYSICAL 

THE supreme effort of our time is to produce the finest type 
of man. This is more strikingly prominent on the material 
side. Physical facts make so forcible an impression on the seek- 
ers after a better acquaintance with the nature in which we live, 
and on those who constantly handle the things of time and sense, 
that the highest development of man's bodily organism is judged 
to be the chief glory. In consequence, rules for right physical liv- 
ing and vigorous bodily exercise abound. The gymnasium and the 
boat-house constitute extensive and costly annexes to our 
boasted university, and are made not merely helps in the getting 
of a sound and thorough education, but chief factors in the train- 
ing of our youth for the trades and professions in life. The 
material dominates the intellectual and the spiritual. The in- 
vestigation of nature and its operations in modern times has 
brought to light so much that is new and startling, and, at the 
same time so useful and helpful, that men make themselves be- 
lieve that the highest good and the supreme end of living are 
to know how to master the forces of nature, and use them to 
develop a perfect material organism. A law of evolution has 
been paraded before the world as the explanation of everything, 
not only that has been and now is, but also that will be. This 
law involves all possibilities, and hence the perfect man in his 
physical form. Some naturalists and their ministerial disciples 
are fond of telling that man, the animal, began with the simplest 
material organism, and ascended step by step from a lower form 
to the next higher, until his present body was worked out com- 
plete in all its parts, the best physical form nature can possibly 
produce. The remaining task of evolution is not to take away 
or add members to this physical organism, but simply, with un- 
erring, artistic skill, to bring out in perfect shape and faultless 
working order, this triumph of natural force, the body of man so 



Destiny of the Physical 107 

perfectly and wonderfully made. Sometime in the future the 
process of development will be finished; the machinery of man's 
physical frame will be in the finest form ; not a defect in a single 
organ; not a clog anywhere; the matchless figure of a divine 
Apollo fully realized. 

It may, however, with fairness be disputed that the final 
outcome will be a crowning fact of man's physical growth through 
either the natural force, or the result of mechanical exercise. 
Beyond question man's body has a destiny, and this destiny is 
nature in its grandest life. But whether that high state of being 
can be reached through any purely material contrivance may well 
be held a matter of sincere doubt. In truth, it must be plainly 
said that, if it is left solely to the physical, chemical and vital 
energies of nature, unmanaged, unguided, save by their own 
temper, to produce the human body without defect in the balance 
of its forces, and without a flaw in its make, there never can ap- 
pear in the endless future the perfect man. Admirable specimens 
of physical culture by mechanical and natural methods doubtless 
will appear in the coming years, just as they have shown them- 
selves to admiring spectators in the past ; but even these, in their 
most striking forms, will be far inferior to that highest destiny 
of which man's body is capable. 

The athlete, in the roundness of his shape and symmetry 
of his form, truly shows how mere bodily exercise can im- 
prove man's physical condition, and increase his power of en- 
durance ; and yet this example of well-developed muscle exhibits 
neither the beauty nor the glory of that human body which can 
be. Undoubtedly desirable and even excellent results are wrought 
by the methods used ; but they are the best that mechanical exercise 
and natural force, independent of any higher power, can produce. 
Through their means the true destiny of the human body never 
can be reached. If subjected to this mode of improvement, it will 
always wear a gross appearance, and never be that sublime form 
which the master genius and sculptor tried to carve. 

Materialism, I know, makes high claims and fascinates a 
sensuous world with its showy products ; but, with all its accom- 
plishments hitherto, and certainly it has made no idle test of its 



108 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

powers, not the slightest assurance has been given that it is able 
to develop the human body up to the climax of material dignity 
and grandeur. On the contrary, evidence abounds that in the 
production of the myriad forms constituting the universe of men, 
physical nature, material force has done the best it could, and 
that, hence, beyond these magnificent efforts it cannot go. With- 
out the superintending influence of a higher power, the greatest 
development of the physical is impossible. When Phidias, the 
master sculptor, conceived the grand ideal of the Apollo, he did 
not picture in his imagination a form begotten of material force, 
built up into most perfect shape by the action of physical energy, 
but first there appeared before his mind's eye a divinity, sub- 
lime in its excellence, gathering about itself a visible shape, in- 
habiting a tangible form, diffusing its supernatural power 
through all the forces of the bodily organism, refining, moulding, 
fashioning every part into faultless symmetry, giving it the 
touches of perfect beauty here and sublimity there, and then suf- 
fusing the entire body with an expression of greatness and glory 
which made it to appear, not a thing of earth, but a god of the 
heavens. 

The material apart from the spiritual may become a thing 
of beauty and of use, but it never can develop into that which 
it would be did not the supernatural pervade and permeate its every 
energy. The human body might be improved from age to age 
through the force of mere natural law, but if there be no agent 
resident in it to direct the operations of this law, and to infuse 
into all the activities of every member the inspiration of its own 
life, the fullest outcome at last can only be a living organism, no 
more complete than the tiny plant or sturdy tree. That which 
is purely material must always remain what the life and spirit 
of physical force are. Higher than these no development which 
is thoroughly material can rise. 

If now the fact be recognized that man is not material 
essence only, but also spiritual being, the one above the other, 
in and through the other, there opens up at once a range of 
development for the human body which is utterly impossible 
where physical nature plays the game of life alone. Since the 



Destiny of the Physical 109 

spiritual is higher than the material, and stronger than its 
mightiest forces, the inevitable result of this permanent contact 
and union is not simply to bring the latter more and more under 
the management and control of the former, but to spiritualize 
the material, to assimilate it progressively to itself, so that the 
physical is leavened by the spiritual, has in it the life and power 
of the spiritual, and becomes partaker with it in a destiny of 
honor, glory and immortality. This climax of man's physical 
growth is well assured. It is not a conjecture or mere specula- 
tion about what the forces of nature will produce through the 
course of coming ages, but a great fact which is rooted in the 
very depths of man's history, and excites the wonderment of 
heaven and earth. The perfect human body exists. It is not 
something yet to be evolved. It already has actual being and 
flames forth from its wondrous height and dazzling glory. 

And this is the body of Jesus Christ, the God-man. It is 
true, while He lived in this world, men saw in His form no 
comeliness. His visage was sadly marred. He was bruised and 
pierced to death. But, behold, He lives again. Of His body 
the inspired Word says : "It was sown in corruption, it was 
raised in incorruption ; it was sown in dishonor, it was raised in 
glory; it was sown in weakness, it was raised in power; it was 
sown a natural body, it was raised a spiritual body." This is the 
body of Him who is our Elder Brother, and of whom it is said 
that "His head and His hair are white like wool, as white as 
snow ; His eyes are as a flame of fire ; His feet like unto fine 
brass as if they burned in a furnace; His voice as the sound of 
many waters, and His countenance as the sun shining in his 
strength." 

In this body are present the forces of the material universe. 
Here they ever act in fullest harmony, and preserve a matchless 
beauty of form and an immortal freshness of appearance; while 
in their ceaseless activity they declare in loftiest strain the glory 
of God and show forth His most resplendent handiwork. But 
these forces of nature have by no means, merely by a genius of 
their own, built up this most wonderful organism, suffused it with 
a matchless grace, and crowned it with a sublimity never to be 



110 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

equalled. They are but the servants of a master soul, whose life 
and power pervade, thrill and permeate their very essence, caus- 
ing them to lose the image of the earthly, and take on the fashion 
of the heavenly. 

On the Athenian heights once stood the Phidian Apollo, the 
triumph of artistic genius, the praise of Greece, the admiration 
of the world. It was a marble statue, the expression of a great 
ideal. But on the height of the eternal heavens there stands a 
living body, in form perfect, in expression sublime, in being God- 
like, the body of the Son of man, the real Apollo, radiant with 
a splendor which art and nature never wear, surpassingly glor- 
ious, brighter than the sun and stars. 

Aye, there is man's body at the climax of its development! 
Beyond this material force can never go. Up to this height, 
without the moulding, quickening presence of the spiritual, 
physical energy never can attain. The body of Jesus is the goal 
of physical and material greatness, beauty, grandeur and power. 
Here we reach the climax. If you wish to see this nature at its 
best, you must not search among the rocks, or scale the mountains, 
or dive into the depth of the sea, or scan the lilies of the field 
arrayed in all their magnificence, or the stately cedars sublime 
in their appearing on the craggy peaks, or the gladiator with 
herculean physique, or the athlete with nimble foot or dextrous 
hand, the paragon of physical beauty ; but you must look up to 
the right hand of God to see material nature at its apex, the 
glorious body of Jesus, the Son of man, supreme in excellence, 
the temple of the living Jehovah, the praise of heaven, the admira- 
tion of the universe. 

Yet we have not exhausted our theme. Jesus is the com- 
pleteness of human nature in its mental attainments. The mind 
of man is no dead, irrational force. It is a living, rational being. 
Unlike matter, it is a self-active force, able not simply to imitate, 
but also to originate. It is a thinking, knowing, willing power, 
whose capabilities enlarge by continued exercise ; and, hence, as 
the process of development goes on, it takes in wider regions of 
the world of knowledge. Mind is progressive. Its march has 
been a steady advance upward to a grander achievement and 



Destiny of the Physical 111 

broader possessions. The works of art attest its skill. The epics 
and the lyrics of the ages flash its genius. The philosophy of 
ancient and modern days and the science of our time display 
its deep searchings after truth and its stately steppings from a 
lower to a higher stage of civilization. What strides it has taken ! 
What leaps it has made! How it pushes forward today with 
astonishing swiftness to greater conquests and nobler attainments ! 
It is indeed the master power of the earth ; mightier than the 
storm, stronger than the wild forces of nature. Like a very god 
it moves above the fierce elements of our globe, and stretches out 
its scepter of dominion over the kingdoms of land and sea. 

The possibilities of the human mind, who can tell? Some 
day, not far distant, it will have greatly surpassed its present 
growth and power. Problems of thought, now dark, will then 
be made clear. Investigations of nature, now checked by what 
seem to be impassible barriers, will then be triumphantly finished. 
Inventions, now not even rudely shaped in idea, will then do the 
bidding of man. Natural forces, today scarcely known to exist, 
will then be fully controlled with a master's hand. Discoveries, 
now not dreamed of by the most sanguine explorer, will then 
be voiced as marvels of the day. And what is now a great glor- 
ious civilization will shade into littleness before the wonders of 
culture and improvement which will grace the fashion of that 
better age. You might dam up the Nile, or stop the foam- 
ing currents of Niagara ; you can say to the force of the 
natural world, "Thus far shalt thou go and no further," and their 
course is stayed : but who can drive back the mind of man from 
its onward, upward, conquering way? Who can block up the 
road of mental progress? No one. What a destiny, then, it is 
toward which the mind of man is hastening! Inconceivably 
great and grand is the destiny of perfect knowledge — perfect 
knowledge of three great objects to be known, God, man and 
nature, together with their several relations. 

And this is an attainable destiny ; not an imaginary end ; not 
like the mirage of the desert forever receding as the traveler ap- 
proaches ; but a real destiny because already realized. One man 
of Adam's race has already reached that high altitude, the man 



112 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

Christ Jesus. He stands on the summit of all possible human 
intellectual attainment. He knows nature; He knows man; He 
knows God. He is at the apex. 

The mind of man, however, if left entirely to the exercise 
of its own powers, could never rise to such a height. It matters 
not what earnest effort might be put forth, how intensely it might 
energize, and how heroically it might fight the battle of thought. 
Even supreme endowments could not avail; nor would genius, 
with its lofty powers, be able to lead a sure march upward to the 
goal of perfect knowledge, and finally in mighty triumph win the 
prize. Just as the material, apart from the spiritual, never could 
ascend alone above the earthly and take on a heavenly form, so 
human reason, wonderful as its native powers are, never could, 
without union with the divine reason, attain to the profoundest 
knowledge of things seen and unseen, and be familiar without 
the slightest constraint with the mysteries of the natural and 
the secrets of the supernatural. Only the reason of Him who said, 
"Let there be light and there was light," and who made man 
like unto Himself, understands completely the mechanism of the 
physical and the nature of the spiritual. He alone has absolute 
knowledge. 

But when the divine reason comes permanently into contact 
and union with the human reason, the latter is quickened, receives 
a fresh inspiration, and acquires a power of apprehension and a 
depth of insight which the mind of man in its natural growth 
never could achieve ; a power of apprehension and a depth of in- 
sight which give that perfect knowledge of truth in nature, man 
and God which the divine omniscience alone possesses and is able 
to make clear. 

Such a union exists. "The Word was made flesh and dwelt 
among us;" "the brightness of His Father's glory, and the ex- 
press image of His person, the first-born of every creature." This 
is Jesus Christ. In Him the human intellect is everlastingly 
welded to the divine intellect, and thus is inspired to know the 
secret depths of a universe of matter and soul, as well as to 
survey with unerring eye the wonders of the being of the eternal 
God. In Him the human reason is the matchless poet, the most 



Destiny of the Physical 113 

skillful scientist, the perfect artist, the profoundest philosopher, 
the most practical genius. Higher than this no culture can ever 
elevate the mind of man. Up to this exalted attainment no pro- 
cess of intellectual development can raise the finite reason if 
separated from the mind of God. It is the mind of Jesus, united 
with the divine mind, that shows us the human reason in its 
noblest development, at its climax. 

But more ; man has a spirit, and this lifts him into a higher 
world, above the regions of sense, above the realm of intellectual 
insight into that vast domain which comprehends the universe 
of being. It is the crowning jewel of his nature, and constitutes 
in him that worth for which there can be no adequate exchange. 
It is the greatest activity in man, and has an outlook into the 
boundless future, limited only by the boundaries of the finite. 
We cannot now know its vast possibilities. The image of the 
invisible God, by the very nature of its being, is there made pos- 
sible for its destiny which is undoubtedly grand — a destiny of 
righteousness, holiness and love. To be righteous, to be holy, 
and to love God with increasing ardor through the ages, this is 
an excellence of nature and of life which crowns the possessor 
with the glory of heaven. 

And yet it does not realize the greatest possibility of the 
human spirit. Apart from the divine, it is true, the human soul 
may make some progress by virtue of its inherent principles and 
powers, which also are the gifts of God; but there is still a 
vaster possibility. Unite the finite spirit of man with the infinite, 
eternal Spirit of God, and there opens the prospect of a destiny 
extending to the possibilities of the Godhead. It will be right- 
eous, and its righteousness will be the righteousness of God. It 
will be holy, and its holiness will be the holiness of God. It 
will be good, and its goodness will be the goodness of God. It 
will abound in love, and its love will be the love of God, who 
Himself, in His ever blessed being, is the fullness of love. 

And is all this mere empty supposition ? Oh, no ! The union 
has taken place. Nearly two thousand years ago the angel of the 
Lord appeared to a woman of Nazareth, and said : "Hail, thou 
art highly favored : behold, thou shalt conceive and bring forth 



114 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

a son, and shalt call His name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall 
be called the Son of the Highest." And while the shepherds in 
the country about Bethlehem were abiding in the field, the angel 
of the Lord came upon them, and said : "Behold, I bring you 
glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto 
you is born this day in the City of David a Savior who is Christ 
the Lord." The union has taken place. Human nature and 
divine nature are joined together in everlasting wedlock. The 
oneness of this union is the person Jesus. In Him the spirit of 
man becomes a partaker of the Spirit of God. The righteousness 
of God becomes man's righteousness ; the holiness of God, man's 
holiness; the love of God, the animating, constraining, glorified 
love of the human soul. Thus in Christ is realized the true and 
most exalted destiny of the physical, the psychical, and the 
spiritual. Little wonder the inspired Word says that in Him 
should "all fullness dwell." 

"O, could I speak the matchless worth, 
O, could I sound the glories forth 

Which in my Savior shine, 
I'd soar and touch the heavenly strings, 
And vie with Gabriel while he sings 

In notes almost divine. 

I'd sing the characters He bears, 
And all the forms of love He wears, 

Exalted on His throne; 
In loftiest songs of sweetest praise 
I would to everlasting days 

Make all His glories known." 

My last word to you, young friends, is the prayer that 
"Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that you, being rooted 
and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints 
what is the breadth and length, and depth and height, and to know 
the love of Christ, which passes knowledge ; that ye may be filled 
with all the fullness of God." Amen. 



THE LUTHERAN CHURCH AND THE 
AUGSBURG CONFESSION 

THE Lutheran Church arose in the sixteenth century. She 
is the Church of the Reformation. Martin Luther, an 
Augustinian monk, came to the scene October 31, 1517. On that 
day he nailed on the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg 
the well-known ninety-five propositions, the substance of which 
is that salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ. This was the key- 
note to that great event which ushered in these modern times. 

In 1530, at Augsburg, the Reformers, in obedience to the 
order of Charles V, presented in definite statement their doctrinal 
belief before the German Empire and the Roman Church. This 
statement was their Confession of evangelical truth. It stands 
in history as the great Confession of Protestantism and the 
charter of the Lutheran Church. 

To know this Confession is to know what the Lutheran 
Church teaches and believes. In so doing, care must be taken to 
understand clearly that the Augsburg Confession is not a docu- 
ment which is given out as the invention of man, but as an ex- 
hibition of Christian doctrine which finds its source in the Sacred 
Scriptures. 

The Lutheran exalts the divine Word above both ecclesias- 
tical authority and the dictates of the human reason. To him 
the creed is binding only so far as it agrees with the manifest 
teaching of the Word of God. In fact, he understands it to be 
a reflex of this Word, an epitome of what the Sacred Scriptures 
fundamentally teach. The creed is, hence, not an absolute or 
independent something claiming to be the repository of divine 
truth, but only a compact statement showing what the Church 
believes the Word of God to teach. 

In this light the Lutheran Church receives and adopts the 
Augsburg Confession as the symbol of her faith. She means to 



116 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

say: "This is the way I understand the Word of God; this is 
what I believe the Bible teaches. It is sound and pure doctrine 
because it is what the Scriptures say." 

The Augsburg Confession is therefore not taken by the 
Lutheran to be one thing and the Bible another thing, but the 
two are held to be most closely united — the creed an expression 
of what the Bible contains, the Bible the source and power of 
the creed. In consequence, the Lutheran does not insist on ac- 
ceptance of Christian doctrine by the self-authority of his Con- 
fession. This, in itself considered and apart from the Word of 
God, has no authority above the decisions of the human reason. 
The Lutheran looks back through his creed to the Sacred 
Scriptures, and there finds the authority which is all-sufficient, 
and invests his Confession with an authoritative power no 
Scriptureless production of the human mind ever possesses. 

In the sixteenth century the old question was raised with 
extraordinary energy : How can a man be just before God ? To 
this inquiry two answers were given: one by the Church of 
Rome, the other by Martin Luther and his colleagues. Both 
agreed that Christ is the Savior of the world, that He made a 
vicarious sacrifice on Calvary. The particular question was, 
How can the sinner obtain the benefits of the sacrifice, have peace 
with God and clear assurance of salvation? The Romanist 
answered that the sinner can approach Christ only mediately, 
that is, through the Church; the Lutheran answered that the 
penitent sinner must come to Christ immediately, that is, by a 
personal act of faith. 

These answers involved two different theories of the Church. 
The Romanist claims that the Apostolate, to which was given the 
power to forgive sins and infallibility, has been continued from the 
Apostolic days on through the centuries. The Apostolate is here 
now, a living fact, and finds its embodiment in the priesthood. 
The priesthood is the Church. When assembled in ecumenical 
council, its decisions are without error. The decrees of the 
Church, therefore, are invested with divine authority, and are 
even superior to the Word of God, because they determine 
what is the Word of God. If disputes arise concerning 



The Lutheran Church and the Augsburg Confession 117 

any doctrine of Scripture, the Romanist immediately points to 
the decisions of the Councils as the infallible determiners of what 
is religiously true and false. From these decisions there can be 
no appeal to a higher authority. There is no higher authority. 
If now the question comes up, "How can a sinner be reconciled 
to God ?" the Romanist replies : "Through the Church. To the 
priesthood, the living Apostolate, have been committed the treas- 
ures of grace. This priesthood has been given the treasures of 
the kingdom of heaven. It alone can open and shut, bind and 
loose. The Church is not the preacher of the Gospel, but the 
dispenser of grace. Whoever would seek forgiveness of sin and 
find peace must betake himself to the Church, obey her command, 
and rest in the bosom of the priesthood. The only assurance he 
can have of salvation is the assurance which comes from doing 
what the Church directs. In short, the Church requires that he 
shall commit himself absolutely into her care." 

Thus, you observe, it is not Christ whom he must believe, 
but the Church. It is not Christ to whom he must go for eternal 
life, but to the Church. It is not to Christ to whom he must look 
for salvation, but to the priesthood whom God has endowed with 
the power to forgive sins. 

It is easy to see how, under such a conception of the 
Christian Church, deliverance from the power and guilt of sin 
becomes a mechanical process, whose conclusion is reached by the 
merit of human works. No wonder that such elaborate machinery 
is set in motion to cure the human soul of sin, if the application 
of saving grace is committed to the priesthood and this applica- 
tion is made on such conditions as the priesthood may appoint. 
It is only what would naturally occur. No wonder the preaching 
of the Gospel fell into neglect, and the Bible became a rare book 
in the course of years. It was not the Word of God which the 
people needed to know, but the appointments of the Church. It 
was not the instruction and guidance of the Bible which the weary 
and heavy laden must follow in order to be saved, but the orders 
of the priesthood. This inspired body was the wisdom and power 
of God whither all men must go to get the words of eternal life. 
In Romanism the Church, which is the living Apostolate, takes 



118 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

the place of Christ and offers to her subjects, as a reward for 
obeying her commands, the merits of the Savior's suffering and 
death, on such conditions as she may appoint. Saving grace is 
not a free gift to be received from Christ, but a payment made 
by the Church for the work done. 

The Lutheran takes a very different view. With him the 
Apostolate is the Holy Scripture, "which is the abiding voice of 
the Apostolate in the Church." Inspiration is not found in the 
decisions of councils, but solely in the Word of God. This alone 
is infallible. Here is supreme authority. Everything pertaining 
to divine truth and the salvation of the sinner can be determined 
solely by Scripture. This is the Word of God which stands 
above the sayings of men and the decrees of the most enlightened 
synods, and is "the light which lighteth every man." 

In the contest which Luther had with the papacy, the 
supreme authority of the Sacred Scriptures was the high claim 
on which he planted himself. "Unless I am convinced of error," 
he dared to say, "by the clear Word of God, I cannot and will 
not retract." The decrees of the councils pushed into the fore- 
ground by the Church of Rome as the final settlement of what 
is saving truth and what the sinner must do to be saved, Luther 
pushed into the background, and pointed triumphantly to the 
Word of God, the only voice of inspiration, as the infallible guide 
in questions pertaining to salvation and the perfect rule of re- 
ligious faith and practice. The Lutheran exalts the Word of 
God above everything ecclesiastical ; above human reason, on the 
one hand, and above the Church and her decrees, on the other. 

Observe carefully the wide difference at this point between 
Romanism and Lutheranism. Romanism makes the Church, 
which is the priesthood, to be inspired in the same way in which 
the Apostles were inspired, proclaims the Church in her decrees 
to be infallible, and arrogates to herself an authority which is 
superior to that of the Holy Scriptures. Romanism says that it 
is not the voice of God in the Bible you must hear for salvation, 
but the voice of God as it is abiding in the priesthood. It is not 
faith that saves, but obedience to what the Church requires. You 
must make the words of the pope and the decisions of the councils 



The Lutheran Church and the Augsburg Confession 119 

your guide; do as the priesthood directs. Holy Scripture, with 
out the infallible interpretations of the apostolic and inspired 
Church of Rome, is only darkness to you. To have forgiveness 
of sin and eternal life you must believe the pope and the councils. 
You must merit your salvation by the punctilious observance 
of all that the priesthood, to whom has been given the grace of 
the Gospel, infallibly directs; otherwise you cannot enter the 
Kingdom of God. For it is alone the living Apostolate, the in- 
fallible priesthood, who has authority to say what is the truth 
of God and what is not ; what you must do and what you must 
not do to gain forgiveness of your sins. 

In opposition to this high assumption stands Lutheranism. 
This system of doctrine maintains that the Word of God is 
supreme above popes and councils and all the ordinances of men. 
Here God speaks. Here is the truth which saves. Here is the 
Gospel of life and salvation. Here the sinner learns what he 
must do to find peace, forgiveness of sins and salvation. He 
must repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Lutheranism 
says : '"'No mediation of priest will answer. You must flee di- 
rectly to Christ." "Thou must confess with thy mouth the 
Lord Jesus ; thou must believe in thine heart that God raised Him 
from the dead." You must receive Him as your Savior. You 
must give yourself to Him. He, not the priest, must hear your 
confession. You must go to Him just as you are, a poor, perish- 
ing sinner, and say in your heart: 

"Rock of Ages ! cleft for me, 
Let me hide myself in Thee. 
Let the water and the blood, 
From Thy riven side that flowed, 
Be of sin the double cure; 
Save me, Lord, and make me pure. 

Not the labors of my hands 
Can fulfil Thy law's demands; 
Could my zeal no respite know, 
Could my tears forever flow, 
All for sin could not atone; 
Thou must save, and Thou alone. 



120 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

Nothing in my hand I bring, 
Simply to Thy Cross I cling; 
Naked, come to Thee for dress; 
Helpless, look to Thee for grace; 
Foul, I to the fountain fly; 
Wash me, Savior, or I die." 

This is what the Lutheran Church believes, this is the song 
she sings — a Savior who atoned on the Cross for sin, and whose 
blood cleanses from all iniquity ; a personal Savior to whom you 
and I can come, weary and heavy laden, obtain pardon and find 
rest for our souls. And this precious truth of God's Word the 
Lutheran Church has put in her great Confession, which she 
publishes to all the world. You will find it there, not stuck in 
one corner, hidden from view, but standing out in clear sight and 
towering above all other doctrines of her creed. It forms the 
center of this majestic group, and binds them together in a living 
and most beautiful unity. And what is this wonderful doctrine? 
Hear it, my brother: "We cannot obtain righteousness and for- 
giveness of sin before God by our own merits, works and atone- 
ment: but we obtain the remission of sins and are justified before 
God by grace, for Christ's sake, through faith, if we believe that 
Christ suffered for us, and for His sake our sins are remitted 
unto us, and righteousness and eternal life are bestowed upon us ; 
for God regards this faith and imputes it as righteousness in His 
sight, as Paul says, Romans, Chapters III and IV." 

This is what the Lutheran Church believes concerning justi- 
fication before God, and this is how she states her belief. Is this 
Romanism? Does it not flatly contradict the very essence of 
Romanistic teaching? But more, hear what the Augsburg Con- 
fession says about faith and good work in Article xx: 
"Now the doctrine concerning faith, which is the principal 
article of the Christian creed, not having been included for so 
long a time, as all must confess, but the doctrine concerning 
works alone having been preached everywhere, the following 
instructions on this subject are offered by our divines: First, 
that our works cannot reconcile us to God and merit grace, but 
these things are effected through faith alone if we believe that 



The Lutheran Church and the Augsburg Confession 121 

our sins are forgiven us for Christ's sake, who alone is Mediator 
reconciling the Father. He, therefore, who expects to effect this 
reconciliation by works and to merit grace contemns Christ, and 
seeks a way of his own to God, contrary to the Gospel. This 
doctrine of faith is clearly and explicitly inculcated by the Apostle 
Paul in many places, especially in Ephesians, where he says, 'By 
grace ye are saved through faith ; and that not of yourselves ; it 
is the gift of God : not of works lest any man should boast.' " 

This is what the Augsburg Confession says about justifying 
faith — precisely what the Apostle Paul declares. What answer 
does the Lutheran Church give to the question, "How can a man 
be just before God?" but the very answer which the inspired 
Word of God gives. She speaks the Gospel. Is this Roman- 
ism? In the great Apology to the Augsburg Confession Philip 
Melanchthon enforces the meaning of what I have just quoted. 
And who has a better right than the author of our Confession 
to state its meaning? He says: "But if we are made just be- 
fore God solely through the grace and mercy promised in Christ, 
it follows that we do not become just through our works. For 
what necessity would there be then for the glorious divine 
promises, and how could Paul so highly praise grace and exalt 
it? The divine promises offer to us, who are overcome by sin 
and death, help, grace and reconciliation for Christ's sake, which 
no man can obtain through works, but alone through faith in 
Jesus Christ. This faith offers or presents to the Lord God no 
works, no merit of its own, but builds upon pure grace only, and 
knows of no other consolation or trust than the mercy promised 
in Christ. Now this faith alone, when each one believes indi- 
vidually, personally that Christ is given for him, obtains remis- 
sion of sins for Christ's sake, and justifies us in the sight of God. 

"And since this faith exists wherever there is true repentance, 
and raises our hearts when sunk in the terrors of sin and death, 
we are regenerated by it, and through it we receive the Holy 
Spirit into our hearts, who renews them, and thus enables us to 
keep the law of God, to fear and love Him truly, and finally to 
trust that Christ was given for us ; that He hears our cries and 
prayers, and that we can commend ourselves joyfully to God's 



122 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

will, even in the midst of death. That faith is therefore true and 
genuine which receives and obtains remission of sins without 
price through grace, and does not oppose to the truth of God its 
merits and works, which would be a mere feather against a 
tempest, but presents Christ the Mediator: and this faith is the 
true knowledge of Christ. He who thus believes rightly appre- 
hends the great and beneficent work of Christ and becomes a new 
creature. Of this faith in Christ and this knowledge of Him 
there is not a syllable, not a tittle, in all the books of our 
adversaries." 

This is what Philip Melanchthon, the man who wrote the 
creed of the Lutheran Church, says about the fourth article of 
the Augsburg Confession. Is it not the voice of Scripture? Is 
it not the pure Word of God about how we poor sinners can 
become new creatures in Christ Jesus? Where in all the state- 
ments of divine truth among men is there anything superior? 
Have you and I ever heard a better, truer Gospel than the Augs- 
burg Confession and Melanchthon's defense express? If there 
is any such, let it be produced. I challenge the world of Biblical 
scholars, theologians and preachers, from the days of the Apostle 
Paul down to the present time, to show a truer statement of how 
you and I and all men can be justified before God, than that 
which is given in the fourth article of our Confession of Faith 
and the Apology of Philip Melanchthon. And is it to be in- 
sinuated that a Confession of Faith which has for its corner- 
stone the clear teaching of Holy Scripture concerning justifica- 
tion is, nevertheless, in sympathy with Romanism ? On the other 
hand, is it not to be presumed that a Church which is rooted so 
securely in the Word of God as the Lutheran Church is by the 
fourth article of her creed, will be the everlasting opponent of 
the Roman hierarchy? 

And is it not an historical fact that the Lutheran Church has 
been the representative of the truest Protestantism, and that from 
her there have been fewer defections to the Church of Rome than 
from any of the great evangelical bodies of Protestant belief? 

And yet it is published broadcast that the Lutheran Church 
is going to Rome ! He who makes such an assertion, whoever he 



The Lutheran Church and the Augsburg Confession 123 

may be, has never read intelligently the Augsburg Confession 
and Melanchthon's Apology. 

But again, the Augsburg Confession not only gives explicit 
statement as to how a sinner becomes just before God, but also 
enumerates the means through which justifying faith is obtained. 
These are the Word and the Sacraments. This is expressed in 
the fifth article which says : "For the purpose of obtaining this 
faith, God has instituted the ministry and given the Gospel and the 
Sacraments, through which, as means, He imparts the Holy Spirit, 
who, in His own time and place, works faith in those who hear 
the Gospel, which teaches that through the merits of Christ and 
not through our own merits, we have a merciful God, if we 
believe in these things." 

This article plainly teaches, first, that the Word of God and 
the Sacraments are the means of grace, not grace itself : second, 
that through these means the Holy Spirit as grace is imparted : 
third, that the Holy Spirit thus imparted works faith in those 
who hear the Gospel. It must be noted that it is expressly taught 
here that neither the Word nor the Sacraments operate in them- 
selves or are depositories of grace, and on that account by them- 
selves produce faith, but that the Word and Sacraments are 
simply channels through which is imparted the Holy Ghost, who 
alone produces faith, regenerates, and witnesses to forgiveness 
of sins. The Romish view is precisely the reverse. The Sacra- 
ments are not channels of grace, but grace itself. They are not 
the means through which the Holy Spirit works life and salvation, 
but they themselves are the agency by which the benefits of 
Christ's redemption are wrought in the soul. What the Lutheran, 
therefore, ascribes directly and only to the Holy Spirit, in the work 
of salvation, the Romanist affirms of the Sacraments. The dif- 
ference is radical, and makes two contradictory apprehensions 
of the office of the Word and Sacraments. 

Concerning the use of the Sacraments, the Confession 
teaches that "the Sacraments have been instituted, not only as 
tokens by which Christians may be known externally, but as signs 
and evidences of the Divine will toward us, for the purpose of 
exciting and strengthening our faith; hence, they also require 



124 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

faith, and they are properly used then only when received in faith 
and when faith is strengthened by them." 

Concerning the Holy Supper the Confession says, "The true 
body and blood of Christ are truly present under the forms of 
bread and wine, in the Lord's Supper, and are there administered 
and received." By the body and blood of Christ is here meant 
the human nature of Christ as it now is in a glorified state. This 
glorified human nature is present in the Supper in connection 
with the bread and wine. It is a real presence of the whole 
Christ, not a part of Him. The meaning is, Christ is personally 
present. The Lutheran is, however, careful to say that the bread 
remains bread, and the wine remains wine, but at the same time 
believes that such is the connection between the human nature 
of Christ and the bread and wine that, when the latter, that is, the 
bread and wine, are received, the other, namely, the body and 
blood of Christ, or, what is the same thing, Christ Himself, are 
received. The Lutheran at this point is positive in saying that 
the eating and drinking of the one are not the same as the eating 
and drinking of the other. The eating of the bread and drink- 
ing of the wine are a natural eating and drinking; the eating of 
the body and drinking of the blood of Christ are a supernatural, 
spiritual eating and drinking. The Lutheran repudiates a gross, 
carnal, natural eating and drinking of the body and blood of 
Christ. Since His presence is a supernatural presence, the re- 
ception of Him in connection with the bread and wine must like- 
wise be supernatural. 

This is the Lutheran doctrine of the Real Presence about 
which so much has been said, and which is charged with Roman- 
ism. True, the Roman Church holds a doctrine of real presence ; 
but see the difference; it is as distinct as day and night. The 
Romanist says that the bread and wine are actually changed into 
the body and blood of Christ. The bread ceases to be bread and 
the wine ceases to be wine. The Lutheran says the bread remains 
bread and the wine remains wine. The Romanist teaches that 
the eating and drinking in the Lord's Supper are the natural eating 
and drinking ; it is a gross, Capernaitish eating and drinking, that 
is, an actual eating with the teeth of the flesh of Christ and actual 



The Lutheran Church and the Augsburg Confession 125 

drinking of His blood. The Lutheran repudiates all this, and 
maintains that no change whatever takes place in the elements; 
that these are received naturally, while the body and blood of 
Christ are received supernaturally. 

Furthermore, the Lutheran teaches and believes that the 
efficacy of the Sacrament of the Supper is dependent entirely on 
faith. The eating and drinking do not give remission of sins, 
life and salvation. The Sacrament does not produce peace with 
God. It is only a means of grace through which the Holy Ghost 
is imparted. Without faith the Sacrament cannot be efficacious, 
and the communicant cannot enjoy the blessings it conveys. The 
Romanist denies all this and says the Sacrament works salvation 
independent of the faith of the recipient. Faith plays no part 
whatever in the appropriation of the saving grace. 

The Calvinist believes also that the real body and blood of 
Christ are present in the Sacrament, and are eaten and drunk 
by the communicant. He holds, however, that the com- 
munion takes place in heaven, where there is the glorified 
human nature of Christ, and not on earth. The Lutheran main- 
tains that Christ is truly present on this earth ; that it is here His 
people commune with Him. Both Lutheran and Calvinist teach 
that the communicant partakes of the body and blood of Christ. 
The only difference is that the Lutheran says it is a supernatural 
and mysterious eating and drinking on this earth; the Calvinist 
says that it is a supernatural and mysterious eating and drinking 
of the true body and blood of Christ by faith in heaven. 

Another view of the Holy Supper rejects a real presence 
of Christ entirely, and simply says that there is nothing super- 
natural or mysterious in the Sacrament. The eating of the bread 
and drinking of the wine in the Supper are only a natural act by 
which we are reminded of Christ's suffering and death. The re- 
membrance of what He endured on the Cross will awaken pious 
meditation and stimulate us to devotion in His service and excite 
our faith. According to this view, Christ offers us nothing, but 
simply calls us to remember His agony. 

The Lutheran, on the contrary, insists that Christ perpetually 
and really offers us in His Gospel, Word and Sacrament, noth- 



126 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

ing less than Himself. He is truly present, according to His own 
appointment, in the Holy Supper to be received by us, and ap- 
propriated to our salvation by faith. And this the Lutheran 
claims to be the very heart of the Gospel, that Christ offers Him- 
self to us through the Word and Sacraments as our life and 
peace with God. What less does the Gospel teach ? What more 
could it promise ? The tenth article of the Augsburg Confession 
is in full harmony with the fourth, since faith always requires 
a present Christ. This doctrine of the real presence of Christ 
in the Holy Supper in a supernatural and mysterious way is the 
doctrine which the Lutheran Church has always confessed as the 
clear teaching of the Word of God. A present Christ, who offers 
Himself personally to the penitent, believing soul as its life and 
salvation, is the Gospel which the Lutheran finds in both Word 
and Sacrament. 

Melanchthon in his Apology well says : "The proper use of 
the Sacraments requires faith, to believe the divine promises and 
to receive the promised grace, which is offered through the Sacra- 
ment and the Word. The divine promises can be accepted through 
faith alone. As the Sacraments are external signs and seals of 
the promises, their proper use requires faith ; for when we receive 
the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, Christ clearly 
says : 'This cup is the New Testament.' We should firmly be- 
lieve, then, that the grace and remission of sins promised in the 
New Testament are imparted to us." 

Concerning Baptism our Church teaches "that it is neces- 
sary; that grace is offered through it; and that children ought to 
be baptized, who through such baptism are presented to God, and 
become acceptable to Him." 

Baptism is necessary because divinely appointed. "Go ye, 
and baptize all nations," is the command of Christ to His Church. 
It is, further, a means of grace, because the Word of God is con- 
nected with water, and this constitutes baptism. As Luther says, 
"Without the Word of God the water is mere water, hence no 
baptism ; but with the W T ord of God it constitutes a baptism, that 
is, a gracious water of life and a washing of regeneration in the 
Holy Ghost. But such effect it cannot have without faith trust- 
ing such Word of God in the water." 



The Lutheran Church and the Augsburg Confession 127 

In connection with this Sacrament it is charged that the 
Lutheran Church teaches that Baptism is necessary to salvation. 
We reply by saying that our Church teaches that baptism is a 
means of grace, through which the Holy Spirit operates, without 
whose operation there is no salvation. Baptism is, hence, ordi- 
narily necessary as a means. "While Christ," as another says, 
"certainly cannot be bound to confine His saving power to the 
Sacrament, the Church is nevertheless bound by the appointment 
of her Lord." 

Again, it is charged that the Lutheran Church teaches bap- 
tismal regeneration. The proof cited is the last clause of the 
Confession, which is, "Who are not born again by baptism and 
the Koly Ghost." 

We answer, first, in the language of St. Paul : "According 
to His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and 
the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly 
through Jesus Christ our Savior: that, being justified by His 
grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal 
life." Second, we answer in the language of Christ: "Except 
a man be born of the water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into 
the Kingdom of God." It was these passages that Melanchthon 
had in mind when he wrote the second article, and said, "who 
are not born again by baptism and the Holy Ghost." If the 
Lutheran Church teaches baptismal regeneration, then Christ 
taught it to Nicodemus. If Christ meant baptism as a means of 
grace and the Holy Spirit as the Divine agent of regeneration 
who is imparted through baptism, then that is what the Lutheran 
Church means, when she says, "who are not born again by bap- 
tism and the Holy Ghost." 

The Roman Church teaches baptismal regeneration because 
she holds that baptism contains the grace of regeneration and 
wherever administered works of its own accord — in a magical 
way. But the Lutheran view of the Sacraments as a means of 
grace repudiates the Romish theory, and maintains that it is the 
Holy Ghost alone who regenerates and sanctifies. And this is 
the doctrine which our Church has always confessed in opposition 
to Rome's view of baptism and regeneration. 



128 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

Again, it is charged that the Lutheran Church is going toward 
Rome because she approves the use of a liturgy. What is a 
liturgy? It is defined "to denote, first, the whole order of public 
worship ; second, the order for the celebration of the Lord's Sup- 
per." The Lutheran Church is liturgical. She has always had 
formulated orders for public worship and the celebration of the 
Lord's Supper. Her liturgies are many. Her judgment, as laid 
down by her theologians, is "that the ceremonies in the Church 
be of an unessential nature, few in number, pious and useful in 
edification, order and decorum; that the observance of them be 
left free so as to avoid giving offense, and so that they may be 
instituted, changed or abrogated with reference to edification, to 
times, places and persons." The Lutheran Church clearly recog- 
nizes the principle of liberty in the use of liturgies. Any con- 
gregation is free to use or not to use a prescribed order of wor- 
ship. True worship is independent of forms or absence of forms. 
A Christian congregation is no more pious without a prescribed 
order and no less with it. Formalism always has its dead forms, 
whether they are set in order by a synod or invented by an in- 
dividual congregation. Everything at last depends on faith. 
Worship is communion with God, and this can take place only 
in one way, and that is through justifying faith. 

But is the Lutheran Church tending to Rome because she 
has a prescribed order of worship? What must be said, then, of 
the Reformed, the Presbyterian or the Methodist Churches? 
These all have their liturgies. Perhaps the special Romanistic 
mark of service is that some people take part and give response ? 
But in Romanism precisely the contrary is the case. The people 
are silent spectators. It is made impossible for them to take part, 
because the service is conducted in an unknown language and by 
the officiating priest and his attendants. It is the priest who 
worships and not the people. And this fact marks the wide dif- 
ference between the Roman Church and the Lutheran in worship. 
In the case of the latter it is the congregation who worships, be- 
cause the congregation is the Church. In the case of the former 
it is the priest who worships, while the people are mere specta- 
tors, because the priesthood is the Church. The charge against 



The Lutheran Church and the Augsburg Confession 129 

the Lutheran Church is, therefore, groundless. It is the abuse 
of an order of worship that is Romanizing, and not its use. 

Again, it is charged that the Lutheran Church is tending 
toward ritualism. What is ritualism? Sacramentalism. What 
is Sacramentalism? The Roman theory of the Church and the 
Sacraments. We have already shown that the Lutheran Church 
does not believe, but rejects the hierarchical theory of an inspired 
papacy ; we have shown that the Lutheran Church rejects entirely 
the Roman doctrine of the Sacraments, and this is sufficient to 
say that the charge alleged against the Lutheran Church is utterly 
without foundation. 

Again, it is charged that our Church is Romanistic because 
she has a Church Year, and observes Reformation Day, Christ- 
mas, Easter and Whitsunday. My answer to this charge is the 
fifteenth article of the Augsburg Confession: "Concerning 
ecclesiastical rites instituted by men, it is taught that those should 
be observed which can be observed without sin, and which pro- 
mote peace and good order in the Church; as certain holidays, 
festivals and the like. Respecting these, however, our instruc- 
tion is designed to release the conscience of men from the idea 
that such observances are essential for salvation. It is taught 
on this point that all ordinances and traditions of men, for 
the purpose of reconciling God and meriting grace, are contrary 
to the Gospel and the doctrine of faith in Christ; wherefore, 
monastic vows, and the traditions concerning the difference of 
meats, days, etc., intended for the purpose of meriting grace and 
making satisfaction for sins, are impotent and contrary to the 
Gospel." 

This is certainly enough for a triumphant answer to the 
charge that the Lutheran Church is going to Rome because she 
observes certain festival days and mentions some Scripture 
passages to read every day in the year. If this sort of intelligent 
argument is sound, what becomes of the Young Men's Christian 
Association, the International Sunday School Committee and all 
the Sunday Schools that use the international lessons, and all our 
Societies of Christian Endeavor ? Not only the Lutheran Church, 
but the Presbyterian, Methodist and Reformed Churches, and all 



130 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

the Associations just named must be squinting that way, if the 
selection of Bible passages for every day in the year, and espec- 
ially for Sunday, is a sign pointing Romeward ! Such charge 
certainly upsets all Christendom. 

And now why is the Lutheran Church going toward ritualism 
and Romanism? Is it because she adopts the Augsburg Confes- 
sion? Why, that is the very Confession that was delivered in 
the presence of an assembled world as a protest against Romish 
error and superstition ! Is it because the Augsburg Confession 
teaches Sacramentalism ? This is the very theory it contradicts 
and repudiates by the great and precious doctrine of justifying 
faith. No; the Augsburg Confession is the Gibralter of Protes- 
tantism against the Papacy; of Lutheranism against Romanism. 
A Church with such a Confession can never become Romish. And 
the Lutheran Church has not turned Romeward. As a Church 
she has always been true to her Confession, and has remained 
firm in her adherence to this vital truth of the Gospel, "The just 
shall live by faith." To Rome she is not going, and she never 
will. Why then malign her by such a false allegation? 

The Lutheran Church is not a sect which is passing away, 
but a giant and mighty Church which is shaping the spiritual life 
and thought of the world. With her, through a long night of 
gloom and struggle, the Ark of the Covenant rested. She broke 
the bars of papal formalism, and brought out the imprisoned 
truth and sent it forth as a herald of glory into all the nations 
to biess and adorn and gladden the world. She still clings to 
the Word of God, preaches it, and disseminates it to the uttermost 
parts of the earth. Of her Confession she is not ashamed, but 
glories in it as a faithful exhibition of the mighty truths of sal- 
vation; while the Bible is her only infallible authority in all 
matters relating to faith and practice. 



CHANGING A CONFESSION 

A CONFESSION is a witness to the truth of God's Word. 
Being the production of the human mind, it is a human 
witness, and has binding authority only in so far as it is per- 
fectly consistent with the teachings of Sacred Scripture. It is 
not co-ordinate with the Word of God, but occupies the place of 
a derivative. It is simply the testimony of the Church of Christ 
to Divine truth. 

This testimony is always subject to verification and open 
to enlargement. No one age can apprehend and believe the 
Gospel teaching for another age, any more than one man can 
have faith for another man. Each generation must determine 
for itself what is the pure Word of God. The testimony of the 
Church in any period needs to be put to the test of Scripture, 
and thus verified in order that what is to be confessed may be 
found to be in accordance with the Divine Word. However, 
there are some among us today who say that the result of this 
testing process is something different from the original Confes- 
sion ; it is not the original whole, but a new whole with some parts 
of the original left out or changed in meaning. 

If the matter in hand be the Augsburg Confession, then it 
is equivalent to saying, "I accept this Confession as being sub- 
stantially correct." "Taken as a whole" and "as a system of doc- 
trine and substantially correct" are, when sifted to their real mean- 
ing in the minds of some, synonymous expressions. This brings 
us to say that between an unqualified acceptance of the Augs- 
burg Confession and the principle on which the Definite Platform 
is grounded there is no third position. Dr. Schmucker made 
the argument in the General Synod for a recension of our Con- 
fession. We have seen no improvement on that argument by 
any since his time who have had and now have difficulty in 
giving a hearty and unqualified subscription to the testimony of 
the Lutheran reformers of the sixteenth century. 



132 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

If any man in the General Synod, or any other Lutheran 
body, will show, to the satisfaction of the Lutheran Church of 
today, that there are statements contrary to the clear Word 
of God in the Augsburg Confession, I am sure that it will 
quickly make the required change. The Lutheran testimony 
is to be determined by what it is, and not by how it came to be. 
It is vastly more than a negative statement. It is eminently 
a positive statement and exhibition of the cardinal truths of the 
Divine Word. This is at once in itself a rejection of their 
opposites. 

To say that the Lutheran Church has the right to change 
her Confession of faith, and then to declare that the Augsburg 
Confession should be modified because it is not Scriptural in 
some of its parts, is to state propositions some of which need 
proof in order to be valid as an argument. The first is not 
disputed. The second has never yet been made clear by any 
specific statement. Once upon a time five specifications were 
proclaimed, and the charge was supported by all the force of 
ingenious reasoning. The General Synod at York in 1867 
repudiated the claim of errors. We understand that only a 
few at present in the General Synod, two or three or perhaps 
a half dozen ministers of the olden time, still adhere to the so- 
called American recension of the Augsburg Confession. Nev- 
ertheless, there are others high up in scholastic learning who 
seem not to be clear in their minds as to whether the Augsburg 
Confession agrees throughout with Scripture or not. They 
remind us every now and then that the Church has the right to 
change the Confession, to which as an abstract proposition we 
assent. They also hint that the Confession must be taken with 
some allowance ; in short, that it is not entirely Scriptural. All 
very fair as an oracular statement, but we commonly can get 
hold of truths much more satisfactorily by having given us the 
specifications of error, article by article, or part of article by 
part of article, and then the clear Scriptural proof for the errors. 
Mere Delphic announcement is not enough. In fact, the latter 
does not satisfy the common mind, and if nothing better can be 
given than vague assertions, the Church will continue to adhere 



Changing a Confession 133 

to the Augsburg Confession as throughout consistent with the 
teaching of Sacred Scripture. 

It is said, now and then, that the General Synod accepts 
the Lutheran System of doctrine, or the Augsburg Confession 
as a system of doctrine. The word "system" is defined to be 
"a combination of parts into a whole" — "a connected view of 
all the truths of some department of knowledge." According 
to this definition, the acceptance of a system of doctrine, as, for 
example, the Augsburg Confession, means the acceptance of all 
the parts ; otherwise it would be taking the system only in part. 

The General Synod accepts the Lutheran system of doc- 
trine; it therefore accepts each and all of the doctrines of the 
Lutheran Church; else it would not have the system in its en- 
tirety. 

But is this the sense in which "the system of doctrine" is used 
by those who are accustomed to inform us that it is the Lutheran 
system of doctrine they hold ? It is sometimes said : "I accept 
this as a whole." The reservation implied is, "not in every 
particular." But if not in every particular, it is plain "not as 
a whole,'" for the whole of anything is the sum of all its parts. 
What is really meant is, "I accept this with modification." In 
this case it is not merely the witness of that which the Church 
formerly believed to be true, but which the Church now finds 
to be correct on proper trial, and therefore it can most conven- 
iently use the form of confession employed in the past. It is 
evident, therefore, that a confession of faith is open to change 
and development. It is open to change whenever, in any of its 
parts, it is found to be inconsistent with Holy Scripture. It 
is open to development in so far as the apprehension of Divine 
truths by the Christian mind are deeper and more comprehen- 
sive in one period than in another. The right on the part of 
a Church to change a Confession previously used, but now found 
to be out of harmony with God's Word, is beyond dispute by 
any one holding the Protestant principle of the infallible author- 
ity of the Sacred Scriptures in matters pertaining to religious 
faith and practice. The foregoing are abstract statements, and 
as such are perfectly valid. 



134 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

But what of the concrete? Take a particular fact — the 
Augsburg Confession. Here is a definite testimony to Divine 
truth. Is it throughout in accord with the teachings of Sacred 
Scripture? Or is it, in some of its parts, Scripturally defec- 
tive? If the latter is the case, then it should be changed and 
made to conform in all its details to the plain teaching of God's 
Word. This is not only a right of the Church, but her duty. 
She should never knowingly be a false witness to any part of 
God's Word. If, however, the former be the case, then no 
reason exists for making any change in doctrinal teaching, and 
no right. The Church is bound by the truth itself to retain 
that which is in accord with Scripture testimony. It does not 
matter who wrote the Confession, whether Melanchthon unaided 
and worried by Roman influence, or Melanchthon supervised 
by Luther at Coburg. Here is a certain document. Is it en- 
tirely in agreement with the Word of God? Or is there a slip 
here and there? The Augsburg Confession as the Confession 
of the Lutheran Church for all time must stand on its inherent 
merits and not on external circumstances. The real and only 
value of it in its confessional statements is bound by the Word 
of God, and will be bound by nothing else. 

But the fact, or facts, of error must be produced. And 
if any man in the General Synod knows these facts, he owes 
it to this body to say in a straightforward way what these par- 
ticular facts are, and he should not go around by Robin Hood's 
barn crying out every few steps he takes: "Something is the 
matter with the Augsburg Confession. Look out! I am com- 
ing. Something is the matter with the Augsburg Confession!" 
"Well, what is it? Pray, tell us plainly; we need to know." 
"Oh, something!" "But what?" "Oh, something! It is too 
critical to tell, but mark you, it is something." 

Something! What a huge quantity of wisdom is wrapped 
up in that word "something!" 



NOTE — We cannot be quite sure whether Dr. Ort meant to close 
this discussion in this apparently abrupt way. Perhaps this was his pur- 
pose. At all events, here is where his paper ends, and there is nothing 
to indicate that he had written more. — Editor. 



THE GROUND AND HOPE OF 
LUTHERAN UNITY 

IS it a unity of faith or a unity of organization, or both, that 
is the matter in question? If a unity of faith, then it may 
be said that this already exists. The Confessional statement 
of Lutheran faith is the Augsburg Confession. This is the rule 
of doctrine for the Lutheran Church. There is one historic 
Lutheran Church having one creed, namely, the Confession made 
at Augsburg. In America there are different Lutheran bodies, 
but all accept this Confession in the one true, native and orig- 
inal sense as the form of Lutheran doctrine. So far they all 
stand on the same platform of the ecumenical Lutheran Creed, the 
Augustana. Confessionally so far they are one. 

But they nevertheless differ, and it is for the historic asser- 
tion and maintenance of their points of difference that they exist 
as separate ecclesiastical organizations. Is the unity in ques- 
tion a unity of these organizations in one ecclesiastical body? 
If so, then the question is, "How can such a result be effected? 
What is the basis on which it may be realized?" Or, again, 
is it concluded that the Augsburg Confession in itself consid- 
ered is not a sufficient exhibition of Lutheran belief, sufficient 
in clearness and definiteness so as to be unmistakably the state- 
ment of the essential doctrines of God's Word, on the one hand ; 
and on the other, unmistakably distinct from all other formula- 
tions of these doctrines? In that case it will be urged that, in 
connection with the Augsburg Confession, there must be taken 
an agreed explication of theological development of the Scrip- 
ture doctrines as stated in the Lutheran confessional system on 
which all must stand to be recognized as in the true faith. In 
that event, the ground for Lutheran unity must be an unreserved 
acceptance of the entire Symbolical System of the Lutheran 
Church. 



136 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

Again, it may be insisted that the Confession taken by itself 
is not, in some of its parts, sufficiently clear and definite and 
consistent with Scripture, and hence should be approved only 
in connection with certain interpretations of its declarations — 
interpretations not found in the Symbolical Books and contra- 
dictory to the explanations therein contained. In this case the 
ground of unity proposed would not be either the Confession pure 
and simple, or the entire Symbolic System of the Lutheran 
Church, but what might be termed a particular or anti-Lutheran 
explanation of the Confession, or, as it has been styled, a re- 
cension of the Confession. 

In what has now been said there have been observed three 
bases for Lutheran unity: First, the Confession pure and 
simple; second, the entire Symbolic System; third, a recension 
of the Confession, or a radical change of its distinctive Lutheran 
statements. Suppose that we pass these in review, and note 
the fitness of each as the ground of Lutheran unity. 

Beginning with the last named, we recite a bit of history. 
When the General Synod was organized in 1820, no confes- 
sional basis was incorporated in its constitution. In its earlier 
proceedings, however, it formulated a resolution declaring that the 
Synod recognized the Augsburg Confession to be a statement 
of the fundamental doctrines of the Word of God in a manner 
substantially correct. The purpose of the organization of the 
General Synod was the ultimate binding of all Lutheran bodies 
in America into an organic unity. The basis on which this 
unity was sought was an equivocal acceptance of the Augustana. 
The situation was about on this wise: Apparently the Augs- 
burg Confession was recognized. Really there were two Con- 
fessions understood, one that agreed with that made at Augsburg 
in 1530, and another that in some capital points disagreed with 
the unaltered form. In short, the form of subscription ex- 
pressed by the original resolution was ambiguous. It was 
after the order of the well known instance : "The Duke yet lives 
that Henry will kill." In consequence two parties presently 
appeared on the scene, the party of the Duke, and the party 
of Henry. They were antagonistic. As time went on, the 



The Ground and Hope of Lutheran Unity 137 

antagonism became more evident. Not only so, but it openly 
developed into a fundamental difference, showing the parties 
to be, one for the Confession as it is unchanged in any of its 
parts; the other to be for a Confession remodeled in some of 
its chief articles, so as to exhibit the contrary of their original 
meaning. On the outside the climax of the development was 
reached in 1855, when for the indefinite declaration of the long 
standing resolution concerning acceptance of the Confession, 
there was proposed as a substitute the Definite Platform. On 
the other side, the high vantage ground was gained in 1864 at 
York, when for the long standing confessional action, there 
was put in its place the well known "York Resolution." 

By the way, the author of the article on the General Synod 
in the book, "The Distinctive Doctrines and Usages," garbles 
the resolution. He quotes that part of the resolution which any 
evangelical Protestant affirms, and omits that which for us Luth- 
erans is vital; namely, "Nevertheless before God we declare 
that the Augsburg Confession, properly interpreted, is in perfect 
consistence with this our declaration and the Holy Scriptures 
concerning the errors alleged." Why this omission of the 
General Synod's declaration concerning the Augsburg Confes- 
sion, and especially since it forms the conclusion of one of the 
most important, nay, I will hold, the most important resolution 
adopted by the General Synod? It saved the General Synod 
from de-Lutheranizing itself. Why the omission by the dog- 
matic professor of the General Synod's Theological Seminary? 
Had the proposed resolution against the Definite Platform been 
voted down, there would have been a voting up of the claims 
of the famous American Recension of the Augustana. In 1868, 
at Harrisburg, the York Resolution of subscription to the Con- 
fession was incorporated in the revised constitution, and is hence 
part of the organic law of the General Synod, known now as 
the doctrinal basis of the Synod, and placing this body, so far 
as the ecumenical creed of Lutheranism goes, on the same platform 
with all other Lutheran bodies. The faith as confessed by the 
Augustana is ours, together with all Lutherans. We are Luth- 
erans as well as they. We are one with them. 



138 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

But to our point. The history of the General Synod, for 
one thing, reveals the fact that an equivocal subscription to the 
Confession as a basis of organic union of the different elements 
of Lutheranism failed. The fact of failure is the best possible 
proof I can offer for the insufficiency of such a basis as a ground 
for organic Lutheran unity. 

But I think we are justified in claiming an equivocal sub- 
scription to be an insufficient ground of unity in the light of the 
very nature of things. A qualified subscription is the making 
of a qualified Confession, and a qualified Confession is a breaking 
away from historic doctrinal connection and development, and 
this is ecclesiastical suicide. The Reformation was a getting 
back into historic line, into the current of a true Christianity 
which courses through the centuries ; or, as is sometimes said, 
"a revival of Christianity." The Lutheran Church will never 
destroy her identity with the past. She will never repudiate her 
distinctive faith. She will never hang herself. From the na- 
ture of the case we deem such action altogether improbable. 
Hence we conclude that an attempt to unify the various elements 
of Lutheranism on a basis of "half fish, half fowl" will always 
fail. 

I am not unmindful of the fact that, in making the declar- 
ation of credal subscription which it did in the outset, it did, under 
the existing circumstances, the best it could. Our churches in 
this country, under the oversight of Muhlenberg and those asso- 
ciated with him, were genuine Lutheran organizations, receiving 
the Augsburg Confession without qualification as to the charter 
of their faith. On this foundation they were planted and began 
their history. In course of time, however, on account of 
rationalistic influences becoming powerful among them, an ab- 
normal movement on their part set in, which culminated, not 
only in the giving up or depreciation of the Confession as the 
form of Lutheran doctrine, but even in depreciation of the Sacred 
Scriptures as the infallible Word of God. 

At the beginning of the last century (1800) a reaction 
began to appear which continued to increase in momentum until 
it became possible to gain even qualified recognition of the 



The Ground and Hope of Lutheran Unity 139 

Confession by a general body. The return of our churches to 
their original and normal Confessional basis had begun. This 
movement was destined, from the natural course of things, to 
go on, until finally the General Synod would rest on an unqual- 
ified acceptance of the Confession which the fathers of the 
Church approved without qualification. On the Confessional 
foundation of the Lutheranism of Muhlenberg the General Synod 
now stands. On this basis it takes up the line of march through 
the twentieth century. To what extent it will realize the orig- 
inal design of its existence the future alone can make clear. 

But to return to the matter in hand. In the second place, is 
the entire Symbolic System of the Lutheran Church the only 
sufficient ground of organic unity, or the unity of faith? In 
the case of the latter it certainly does not hold, and for the simple 
reason that the Lutheran Church with her Confessional doctrines 
existed fifty years before the Formula of Concord was con- 
structed. While this document was designed to end all doc- 
trinal difference of view and all internal dogmatic controversy, 
the fact still remains that today Lutheran bodies have become 
alienated from each other by controversy on some of the very 
points which the Formula of Concord claims to have settled for- 
ever. An instance is found in the fight between Missouri and 
the Joint Synod over the teaching of the Formula concerning 
predestination. The weakness of the Symbolic System as a 
Confessional basis is that parts of this system are rather defense 
and dogmatic developments of the strictly confessional state- 
ments, than simple apprehensions of the teaching of the Divine 
Word. 

The Formula of Concord is an excellent theological treat- 
ise on some doctrines exhibited by the Augustana, or, if you 
prefer, an admirable exposition of points under dispute among 
Lutheran theologians of the sixteenth century. There are dif- 
ferent ways oftentimes of expounding a truth. One may be 
preferable in the minds of some. This is immaterial so long as 
the truth in its reality is preserved inviolate. Owing to the 
dogmatic character of the Formula, it will always, just as it has 
in the past, be found impossible to secure universal agreement 



140 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

concerning either the meaning or soundness of all the develop- 
ments of doctrine exhibited in that document. But waiving all 
criticism, the fact stands that the Lutheran bodies of America, 
having as their Confessional basis our whole Symbolic System, 
are not in organic union. The Synodical Conference has prac- 
tically become isolated. The General Council, though it 
made a vigorous attempt, failed to collect all Book of Concord 
bodies into one general organization. Today there are the sep- 
arate units — Missouri, Iowa, Joint Synod, United Synod South, 
and these bodies, as now planted, will continue in their separatistic 
course. Missouri knows and allows no open questions, and for 
that reason will not affiliate with others who cannot so think. 
The Joint Synod is fixed in its views of predestination as over 
against Missouri, and in its Judaistic exclusiveness as over against 
all other Lutheran bodies that practice, even in a very moderate 
degree, fellowship either among themselves or with other evan- 
gelical Christians. And so I might go on enumerating one obstacle 
after another now potent against the organic union of the Con- 
cord bodies, but I will not weary you with their recital. 

So far as a doctrinal basis for unity among Lutheran bodies 
in this country is concerned, I believe, when they do come to- 
gether, it will be on the basis of the Unaltered Augsburg Con- 
fession. But in two modes, and these will be expressed by 
language. The German elements will ultimately, I believe, 
become one body, and this will be a perfectly natural union. 
The Anglicized and English elements will unite in one general 
body, and this, too, will be a perfectly natural union. 

Furthermore, I believe this latter union will be accom- 
plished by the General Synod, if true, out and out, to its present 
subscription to the Augustana, and in that event the dream of its 
founders will be gloriously realized. For such a happy con- 
summation it is well worth our while, as part of this distinguished 
body, to pray and work. 



PIETISM 

A MOVEMENT arose in the seventeenth century in the 
Lutheran Church which is known as Pietism. The 
name Pietism was originally applied to this movement by way of 
reproach. It continued in use, and historically designated the 
effort then made to induce a better practical religious life, and 
so it continues. Pietism is of the order of movements in the 
Church, awakened from time to time, whose purpose is the re- 
newal of a genuine faith. Instances of this kind are matters 
of fact in Old Testament history, as well as in the history of 
the Christian Church, both ancient and modern. 

In the beginning of my remarks it is proper to note some 
conditions, especially in the Church, which prevailed in the period 
when Pietism began to stir and take on historic form. The 
essence of this movement was clearly apprehended and forcibly 
exhibited in this age by devout men before the appearance of 
Spener, who is known as the father of Pietism. These men, 
especially John Arndt, were the forerunners of Spener and 
Francke. 

The Thirty Years' War, a most terrible ordeal for the Prot- 
estant Church, had closed; but the religious conditions of the 
people had radically changed from that of Reformation times. 
The hearty, devout, joyous, active Christian life of those days 
was gone. A sad religious state, deplorably sad, had resulted, 
and was most seriously affecting the spiritual power of the Luth- 
eran Church. Very many of her people had become indifferent 
to a practical Christian life, and were filled with the spirit of 
this world. Gross immoralities prevailed among the clergy, 
and the attempt to lord it over God's heritage became a marked 
feature of the ministry of the time. The Sacred Scriptures 
were pushed into the background, and were used more as a 
book of proof-texts than as a store-house of living truth. The 



142 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

preaching of the day, much of it at least, was scholastic, abstract, 
intellectual, and destitute of that inspiration which streams from 
a deep, lively experience of the saving power of the Gospel. 

To all this, however, there were charming exceptions. Not 
all preachers had become subject to dead formalism. There 
were some who were devout men of God, and had a conviction 
of the reality of the Gospel which can only arise out of a living 
faith. These were lights to their generation revealing the prac 
tical power of the Gospel of Christ. They were witnesses, 
living witnesses, testifying to the saving grace of God, and ever 
maintaining that, "whereas I was blind, now I see." God has 
never been without His witnesses. Even in the long medieval 
age, that age of corruption and perversion of New Testament 
teaching, there was still an illustrious company of those who did 
not bow the knee to Baal. And so, too, in this modern time, 
when the assurance of the quickening faith was no longer in 
the Church a matter of general experience, there were those, 
and not a few, who testified with Paul that they were not 
ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto 
salvation to every one who believes. 

The seventeenth century was the great dogmatic period of 
the Lutheran Church. No theological structure has ever reached 
the equal of that reared by Lutheran theologians of this century. 
As a logical development of the solid doctrines of the Word of 
God it is matchless. It deserves the closest, most constant 
study of every Lutheran minister. In the ancient Church there 
was incessant theologizing. This was a necessity of the time : 
first, apologetically, because of the opposition of Judaism on the 
one hand and heathenism on the other ; second, polemically, 
because of the erroneous apprehension of Christian truth through 
the baneful influence of oriental philosophy. Hence it was a 
creed making period. 

During the Middle Ages there was little, if any, occasion 
for defense of the truth against external or internal foes. The 
majesty of Rome was supreme. It was now left to the Christian 
mind to take up the doctrines of the Christian religion as they 
had been formulated by the theologians of the ancient Church, 



Pietism 143 

and subject them to the severest reflection and acutest analysis 
of the logical understanding. The result was what is known 
as medieval scholasticism. 

A moment ago I said that there was little occasion for 
polemicism in the Middle Ages. Perhaps this statement is not 
quite precise. In the efforts which some thinkers made to ex- 
hibit the fullness of individual doctrine, such as God and His 
existence, there was, on their part, a veering to fundamental 
error. They were unconsciously pantheistic in their teaching. 
There were two classes of scholastics : those who employed the 
logic and categories of Aristotle, and those who followed the 
guide of Platonism — Aristotelians and Platonists. The first 
seized on the objective as the prime reality; the second, the sub- 
jective. The first maintained that the subjective is subordinate 
to the objective and dependent on it; the second that the object- 
ive is subordinate to the subjective and dependent on it. As 
to certainty in religion, the first pointed to the logic of thought ; 
the second, to the intuitions of the Christian reason. 

In the Reformation period, the objective, namely, the 
Sacred Scriptures, the formal principle, and the subjective, 
namely, faith, the material principle, were maintained as co- 
ordinate. This means that they are relatively independent. 
Justification, pardon and peace with God are not caused by 
Holy Scripture. They arise and become fact in experience by 
faith, which is the work of the Holy Spirit, who is also the 
author of Scripture, which He uses as His instrument. This 
was the position of Luther: "God must speak His Word in my 
heart, else it is nothing to me. I cannot know that it is the 
Word of God unless I know it by faith. The Word of God is 
true, but how can I know it to be true but by the experience of 
my soul, which embraces knowing, feeling and willing?" The 
Gospel is both theoretical and practical. As theoretical, it ex- 
hibits the plan of salvation ; as practical, it is an inner experience 
of pardon and peace and all those spiritual benefits promised. 
Luther said, in effect, " Certainty is what I need, what I must 
have. How can I gain it ? By logic ? No ! By intellectual 
intuition? No! The testimony of the Holy Ghost in thine 



144 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

heart is, 'Thy sins are forgiven thee.' How comes this testi- 
mony of the Holy Ghost? By faith." There is only one way 
to highest certainty in spiritual things, the way of faith. Faith 
is the highest assurance to me of the reality of the Gospel. It 
gives the true knowledge of Divine things. 

A distinction was drawn by the reformers between doctrine 
and faith. The principle of the Reformation was the fact of 
justification as Luther experienced it, not the doctrine of faith 
and justification. The latter is the apprehension of the intel- 
lectual understanding, while the former is the experience of 
the heart. In the Creed of Augsburg justification is one among 
a number of doctrines, but justifying faith is the regulative 
principle of the Confession. The same is true of the Apology, 
the Smalkald Articles, the Catechisms and the Formula of Con- 
cord. This is the reason that they are essentially one. The 
formative principle of these creeds is justifying faith. This 
constitutes their unity, and makes them to be a consistent system. 
The radical difference between the Lutheran Confession and the 
Calvinistic is that the latter employs as a regulating, formative 
principle the doctrine of the absolute, unconditional decree of 
Almighty God. 

When the credal system of the Lutheran Church had been 
formulated, there came, in due time, the systematizing period. 
Lutheran doctrine had been stated in clear and definite form in 
the Confessions. It still remained that this doctrine should 
be vindicated at the bar of logic, and developed to its ultimate pro- 
portion. In this way the pure doctrine would be unmistakably 
exhibited. 

This effort of the Lutheran dogmatic mind gave rise to 
what is known in the theological world as the orthodoxy of the 
seventeenth century. From the intellectual view-point it was 
a noble achievement. The time was at hand when the Lutheran 
mind must justify the doctrines of its belief before the world, 
both skeptical and papistic, by the best thought of the religious 
understanding. Considerable harsh criticism has been made 
of this work of the Christian mind, some of it is just, some of it 
unfair. The aim of the dogmaticians was worthy. They stood 



Pietism 145 

for the imperishable truth of the Divine Word. They purposed 
to rear a Christian structure of Christian thought that could 
resist the fiercest assaults, and be a perpetual exhibition of the 
pure doctrines. In it is to be found an immense amount of most 
precious Christian truth. 

But, on the other hand, the fact must not be overlooked 
that this orthodoxy had some serious defects. It was one-sided. 
In its eagerness to set forth clearly the doctrines of God's 
Word by a remorseless logic, it overlooked the value of an 
inner experience. It exalted the objective teaching as the only 
principle of theology, forgetting that there can be no true 
science without both principle and fact ; no true science of Divine 
acts and movements without the experience of faith: Credo ut 
intelligam. Such emphasis did it finally place on the objective 
truth of the Bible, or, rather, I should say, on the formulated 
doctrine of the creed, that, to say the least, it thought the inner 
experience of saving truth to be of little moment. In short, 
like its predecessor of medieval times, it regarded the subjective 
as dependent on the objective: Intelligo ut credam. That is, 
scientific knowledge is the producer of faith. But this faith is 
an intellectual act, not the faith wrought in the heart by the 
Holy Ghost. If, therefore, I have the intellectual apprehension 
of pure doctrine, I have salvation. 

The principle of the Reformation was dropped out, and in 
its place was substituted the lifeless abstraction, and so it came 
to be a "dead orthodoxy." It was orthodoxy, but a lifeless ortho- 
doxy. It sacrificed the material principle to the formal. It was, 
as Martensen says, secure in the inheritance left by the fathers, 
secure in the possession of pure doctrine, of the plan of salva- 
tion, but forgot the experience described in the creeds. The 
mistake of this orthodoxy consisted in separating doctrine and 
life, teaching that pure doctrine is the all-essential matter, and 
that life is a matter of indifferent concern. It is what a man 
believes with his understanding that gives him assurance of the 
truth of Holy Scripture and of salvation. 

In consequence of this seventeenth century orthodoxy, a 
marked decline in the practical religious life of the Church oc- 



146 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

curred, a decline which alarmed earnest Christian souls of that 
time, and became the occasion of an effort to revive the spirit 
of the Reformation. In this undertaking the endeavor was not 
made to change the doctrines of the Church as formulated in 
her Symbolic System. It was not theological but practical. 
Spener heartily accepted the Lutheran Confessions. The diffi- 
culty was not with the doctrines themselves, but with the way they 
were esteemed and used. On account of the abstract employ- 
ment of the teachings of the creeds, the Sacred Scriptures in 
their practical bearing and in their spiritual power were neglected. 
The people became content with the formal acceptance of 
Christian truth, and were hence ignorant of the knowledge of 
the reality of the truth by an inner experience. A dead for- 
malism too largely prevailed in the Church. A theoretical instead 
of an active Christianity characterized the history of this time. 
The hour was at hand when reform of Church life was neces- 
sary. Christian souls, many, felt the imperative need of a change. 
There must be a return to the living Word of God, not specu- 
latively, but spiritually, as with Luther; a return to life with 
God in Christ by faith. And so Spener began his work by 
instituting Collegia Pietatis of inquirers and believers. These 
meetings (Collegia) were held twice a week. At one of these 
Spener preached his sermon of the previous Sunday, explaining 
obscure points and correcting mistaken views. At the other 
prayer and exposition of Scripture occupied the time. From 
this modest beginning there went through the Church a move- 
ment for the spiritual awakening and quickening of the people, 
which proved to be an incalculable blessing. A practical Chris- 
tian life began to stir in all quarters. The happy days of the 
Reformation returned. An active Christianity began to show 
itself and wield its power among men. 

It is to be noted that, in this blessed work of renewal, the 
same instrument was employed as by Luther and his colleagues — 
the Word of God. This was restored to its rightful place. 
Study and searching of the Holy Scripture were revived; not 
the expositions of the statements of men, but of the Holy Scrip- 
ture itself, as it testified of Christ and the way of salvation. The 



Pietism 147 

great aim was to bring souls to a practical experience of the 
Gospel, to the possession of the life in Christ by faith, and to a 
practice of the works which flow from a living trust in God. 

In his little tract, "Pious Desires," Spener expresses his idea 
of the aim to be sought and realized in bringing the Church to 
a better state. And this was to be done, first, by the "abundant 
spread of the Word of God." "This," said Spener, "is the true 
source of evangelical life." Second, by the proper exercise of 
the priesthood of believers ; third, by inculcating the idea that the 
Christian faith does not consist of doctrine alone, but also of 
spirit and practice ; fourth, by a different method of educating 
divinity students in the schools ; fifth, by better and more edifying 
preaching. 

In its internal character Pietism relates to three sub- 
jects : theology, the Church, and Christian morality or ethics. 
Spener maintained that the Christian teacher, that is, the theo- 
logian, must have a true knowledge of Divine things. This is 
only possible through faith and regeneration. The theologian 
must be a regenerate man, else he is not competent to produce 
a true Christian theology. Then Spener contended that the 
Church is the universal priesthood of believers. This can only 
exist by regeneration through justifying faith. This principle 
of the Reformation had been pushed into the background. The 
laity were treated as merely passive hearers. But the Church 
is not a hierarchy, with a ministry as the authoritative party, and 
the laity subject to the rule of the ministry. Believers form a 
spiritual priesthood, which is the Church. This principle, Pietism 
maintained, must be restored to its rightful place, and thus con- 
sistency be secured with the Reformation position. 

Spener was no less clear in his conviction that the Chris- 
tian's walk and conversation should correspond with his pro- 
fession. The Christian religion is a life in Christ, which, if it 
is worth anything, must produce fruit. Faith without works 
is dead. It is not enough to be justified. The final aim of the 
operation of the forces of grace is the sanctification of life. As 
Dorner says, "The Church must proceed from religion to morals." 
"After the Reformation," says a preacher of Wurttemberg in the 



148 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

eighteenth century, "the common people for the greatest part 
believed, as indeed a great many do still, that salvation de- 
pended on sound doctrine alone. If one were only not Roman 
Catholic and not Calvinistic, but confessed the pure evangelical 
doctrines, all well. Sanctification was not so very necessary. 
In the salvation offered to sinners no reference was made to 
sanctification. A godly life, which bears the fruits of the 
Spirit, in short, holy living, was the matter of insistence on the 
part of Pietism." 

Pietism finally found a home in a newly established uni- 
versity. Francke and two of his colleagues, having been driven 
from Leipsic, were through Spener's influence appointed pro- 
fessors in this new school. Thus Pietism gained at least an 
educational habitation. Halle became the center of the new and 
rapidly spreading evangelical movement. It was now in a con- 
dition to prepare young men for the ministry under its own teach- 
ing, and imbue them with the spirit of its genius. It sent a new 
class of preachers among the Churches of Germany, faithful 
missionaries to heathen lands, and pastors to the need}'' and 
neglected German Lutherans in our own country. 

Halle is a potent name in our Lutheran annals. It made 
the beginning of the inner mission work, begat an intense mission- 
ary spirit, and awakened in the life of the Church an aggressive 
Christianity. It was a powerful agent under God for the revival 
of practical religion. Of the struggle of Pietism, its conflicts, 
its persecutions and controversies, I make no mention. I pass 
to a brief notice of its defects and its decline. 

First : Pietism was narrow. The only aim it had in view 
was personal salvation and personal piety. Whatever had direct 
bearing on this was alone deserving of regard. It forgot that 
there is a great world of truth beside that which pertains imme- 
diately to a man's salvation, a knowledge of which is not gained 
by saving faith, but by the testimony of God in His revelation; 
knowledge which is not a matter of personal experience and 
never can be. Too much it overlooked the fact that there is 
a wide field of truth which is known only through rational 
apprehension; a realm of natural knowledge which is funda- 



Pietism 149 

mental, and possesses an imperishable value for the Christian 
soul. Consequently it produced no science. It made no con- 
tribution to theology. It was destitute of the scientific spirit, 
as was evidenced by its treatment of Christian Wolfe at Halle, 
and its refusal to allow its students to study philosophy. It was 
unfriendly to art, the expression of the beautiful. The whole 
realm of aesthetics it regarded as an evil, calculated only to 
distract the Christian soul and lead it to set its affections on 
earthly objects. In its moral view it was legalistic. It main- 
tained a position of antagonism to the natural. It failed to 
make the distinction between the permissible and the required, 
between innocent and sinful, between the world in its good sense 
and the world in its bad sense. It was unmindful of the fact 
that the natural is the creature of God; that of it the Psalmist 
said, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament 
showeth His handiwork ;" and that man, in his making, was 
crowned with honor in that he bore the image of God. 

The strict rule of Pietism was, "touch not, taste not, handle 
not," and that without exception. Under the forbidden things 
were included dancing, theatre, gaming, sumptuous apparel, 
banquets, light and useless conversation and reading. Dorner 
says that Spener did not go so far in this respect as did later 
pietists. He recognized adiaphora, and only disapproved of their 
excess. He said that lawful pleasures cannot hurt the soul, 
and must refresh and invigorate the body. After the days of 
Francke, Pietism entered into a state of decline. Its vigor 
gradually grew less ; its energetic life ceased. It now began to 
indulge in pious, stereotyped expression, external discipline and 
morbid self-introspection. In consequence fanaticisms arose. 
The Sacred Scriptures were neglected, and professed inner ex- 
perience and illumination of the Holy Ghost were extravagantly 
claimed. In connection with these exhibitions, as is always the 
case, hypocrisy appeared, and Pietism as a distinct movement, 
having in view the promotion of a vigorous, energetic Christian 
life, was doomed. Many of its adherents passed into a profitless 
religious life, and others into rationalism. 

But while Pietism as a great movement has ceased, the 



150 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

pietistic spirit is yet in the Church, animating the people of 
God, and inciting them to noblest endeavor in behalf of the 
perishing ones of earth, and of the progress of the Kingdom of 
God among the people of mankind. Earlier Pietism, the Pietism 
of Spener and Francke, was a priceless blessing to the Church 
of Christ; later Pietism was a most regretable misfortune. 

With this I close. I have aimed, not to give a history of 
this great movement under God, but, rather, an exhibition and an 
analysis of the movement itself. 



Ill 

BACCALAUREATE SERMONS 



Ill 

BACCALAUREATE SERMONS 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY— A QUESTION 

My Dear Young Friends: 

AT last you have reached the end of your collegiate career. 
Agreeable to an impulse of human nature, you are moved 
with joy. A work is finished. The toil of it is done and a goal 
has been reached. You are at the threshold of a broader life — 
a life of more care, deeper anxieties, of higher responsibility, of 
more exhausting drafts on your vital energy, where a kingdom 
of noblest worth is to be won or lost. Behind you is a round 
century, before you the whole of another. The old is nearly 
complete. The last act of its drama is closing. Quickly the 
curtain will fall, and all of it will be of the past. The new is at 
the door, and will soon advance on the human stage to enact 
more wonderful scenes and play more exciting acts, it may be, 
than any century has heretofore displayed and wrought. 

The twentieth century is almost here. The twentieth 
century! The period of this world in which your life-work will 
be begun, carried on and finished! Precisely what it will be 
and what it will do, no one can predict. 

Some men of our day profess to have definite knowledge 
of these points of the future. They can tell you exactly how 
your century will conduct itself, what it will believe, and what 
it will achieve. For my part I am of the opinion that the 
twentieth century will settle its problems in its own way, accord- 
ing to its own convictions of right and truth, whatever these 



154 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

may be. It will take care of itself. In this respect it will act 
very much like its predecessor. At the dawn of the nineteenth 
century no man foresaw accurately, as we now know, what move- 
ments, political, social, intellectual and religious, would figure 
as its events. The most any one could then do was to surmise 
and speculate on general principles as to what in all probability 
would be the course and rounding up of the century now in its 
closing days. 

There are at present some unsolved problems. These will 
be handed on to the twentieth century. A solution of some kind 
doubtless will be wrought out. Precisely what this will be and 
how it will be done, is quite beyond infallible explanation. A 
new factor may suddenly appear, or be thrust in, which will 
materially change the complexion of events, occasion a new 
course of procedure. The unexpected may occur. The often- 
mentioned social problem is still an unsettled one. As such, it 
must pass over to the next century. Whether it will be able 
to get a satisfactory answer, one that will be final, and thus 
place the present antagonistic elements in a state of peaceful 
settlement, is an experiment yet to be tried whose successful 
operation may involve unforseen contingencies. 

Then there are questions of government — imperialism, if you 
please, of republicanism and monarchy. Shall the world become 
all Cossack, or Anglo-Saxon, or both? Will free constitutions 
everywhere prevail, or will the man on horseback unexpectedly 
ride down the republics of the world? These are questions the 
nineteenth century has not finally solved. Who can tell what 
disposition the twentieth century will make of them? 

It is somewhat surprising to find the final years of this 
century, in some respects, religiously speaking, similar to those 
of the first quarter — that is, in deep agitation. What to believe 
and what not to believe perplexes many minds. Old bottles are 
thrown away as useless, and new bottles are manufactured to 
hold the old wine. More, a clamorous demand is made for new 
wine, as well as new bottles. Everything must be new. The 
old is no longer serviceable nor agreeable with the best reason of 
the age. It is narrow and unfree. It clogs the wheels of prog- 



The Twentieth Century — A Question 155 

ress, and hampers the human mind in its excursions after truth. 
Reconstruction is the cry. Everything must be made over under 
the blaze of the best light of the ages — that of the nineteenth 
century. 

A new Bible is called for; the old one is quite misleading, 
having in it some truth and much fiction. So the critics say. 
Long time beliefs have been outlived. The entire system of 
religious thought needs to be revised and brought into harmony 
with the advanced conception of the present century. "Back 
to the beginning!" is the shout coming up from many quarters. 
Eighteen centuries of lixed beliefs must be erased, or treated as 
though they never had been. A new religion, a new gospel, a 
new creed is the requirement of the hour. Exactly what these 
shall be is left to the twentieth century for decision. The result 
we are perhaps not in a position to declare. However, it may 
be safely said that, for one thing, the twentieth century will have 
a religion which is the same as that which for nineteen hundred 
years has been extant; and for another, that the old doctrines 
which have been accepted and cherished through all the changes 
of human thought, and are here today as the solid faith of millions, 
will persist through the coming century. There are unchangeable 
principles, eternal truths voiced through the ages. There is the 
permanent in religion, the same always, and abiding through the 
coming and going of one century and another. Believe me, the 
twentieth century will not repudiate the old doctrines of Christian 
belief, in whatever way it may state them. It will stand for 
evangelical, orthodox religion. It will not cut down the Cross 
of Calvary any more than have its predecessors. Some things 
continue as they were in spite of all that some men try to do. 

Unbelief will abound, as it always has abounded. The 
various and well-known forms of doubt will reappear in vigor. 
The usual claim of the natural man that the old Gospel has been 
exploded and that the Church is in a state of hopeless decline, 
will be loudly proclaimed. But over against this unbelief and 
doubt and high boasting, a living faith, a clear certainty and 
assurance of the Christian man will uplift the twentieth century 
and crown its years with imperishable glory. 



156 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

There may be upheavals of society; revolutions of govern- 
ment; large desertions from the Church and Christ; and the 
very foundations may be shaken ; nevertheless, as was said nine- 
teen hundred years ago, so will it be said through the coming 
century : "Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build my 
Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." 

No doubt wickedness will flourish, crime be more desperate 
than formerly, the powers of sin be marshalled against the good 
with a skill unsurpassed in any former age; but the right will 
be stronger too, and the true more powerful, and the good 
mightier. In the twentieth century the world will advance as 
surely as it has gone forward in the nineteenth. True, there 
will be two antagonistic forces, the right and the wrong, the 
good and the bad. Each will move ; the one downward and back- 
ward; the other upward and onward. There will be a growing 
worse, but there will also be a growing better. 

And when the last day of the twentieth century shall dawn, 
I have no doubt that everywhere over the earth, it will be 
recognized that the world is better than ever before. This is 
my hope, and with this assurance I, together with my generation, 
will pass from the toil and struggle of human life into the vast 
beyond. With no less conviction would I wish to go. With no 
other can I go and still believe that the powers which make for 
righteousness are advancing in every age to universal conquest. 

But I turn from these reflections to ask a plain and proper 
question. You have finished your collegiate course, and are 
ready, we will say, for life in the world. On your taking leave 
of these halls, may I not inquire: What solid possessions are 
you taking with you? What is the good that you have gained 
that will serve you most helpfully in the toil and battle of life? 

Is it a healthful body? 

Do you query why I make mention of this material organism? 
Well, it is a wonderful mechanism, a matchless structure, the 
finest piece of Divine art. No other material form equals it. 
The different parts, bone, muscle and nerve, are so nicely shaped 
and so perfectly adjusted one to the other that, over all the 
physical works of God, the human body stands supreme. It is 



The Twentieth Century — A Question 157 

most excellent — at the climax. The purpose of this masterpiece 
is sublimely wise. It mediates between the realm of the natural 
and that of the spiritual. It communicates the inner to the 
outer, and the reverse. It gathers and conveys the earthly to 
the heavenly. It is the agency whereby the self, of which you 
ever speak, the knower and the doer, on the one hand, 
appropriates the wealth of a physical universe and forms this 
into objects of beauty, thus making a world of sense and spirit, 
which is its own creation and handiwork ; and, on the other hand, 
it is the instrument by which this self makes revelation of its 
thoughts and aims, wishes and emotions, desires and volitions, 
to other selves, and through which it voices hymns of praise and 
offers worship unto the Father of us all. By means of this 
organism, so close is the connection between the physical and the 
psychical, the material and the immaterial, that they together 
have one life, the human life. This life in its development is 
much as the terrestrial makes it. Clearness of thought, quickness 
of perception, liveliness of feeling, strength of will, energy of 
action, and endurance of application, are all of them subject to 
the temper and states of the human body. The joy and success 
of living are chiefly dependent on this peerless mechanism. What 
a priceless good to have this magnificent work of Divine skill 
in the best condition, its organs in the normal state, in smooth 
running order, without a jar between them, aglow with healthful 
activity, performing their several functions with ease and force, 
and ever ready to give quick response to the movements of the 
spiritual self. 

It is a matter of high moment to you what kind of bodies 
you are taking with you into a world of push and rush, labor 
and conflict. Are they vigorous, strong and healthful? The 
burdens you will be required to bear will be heavy; the contests 
in which you must engage will be fierce. Long and desperate 
will be the struggle in order to win the best prize, and make the 
world better because you have lived. Large reserve force will 
be needed for the hard tasks of the future, for successful battle 
with the ills and misfortunes of human experience, and with the 
unfriendly bearing and resistance of the selfish greed of this 



158 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

world. Persistent endurance of physical powers will be needful 
as the years of hard toil and earnest struggle go by. 

If in the evening time of your days you can still chant your 
morning song, it will be because unimpaired vigor of body, 
strength of heart, firmness of muscle, steadiness of nerve, healthy 
assimilating forces of your physical organism are part of the 
capital with which you start to do the business of human life. 
Many a youth has insured for himself failure and defeat before 
even the days of work and battle were at hand. Prodigal use 
of physical resources, abuse of finely tempered organs, and prosti- 
tution of vigorous bodily energy to the pleasures of sin, sowed 
the seeds of disease, entailed lasting sickness, and poisoned the 
life-giving blood for all time. It was the beginning of weakness. 
And when the days came for them in which strength of physical 
power and ability to withstand and to endure were put to test, 
they went down in exhaustion, with bitter disappointment, never 
to rise. It is much, very much for the pleasure of living a suc- 
cessful career to have a healthful body. If this be your posses- 
sion, fortunate you are indeed. Long life awaits you, and 
activity, even though the struggle may be hard and the toil severe. 

Again, I ask, is it a cultivated mind that you are taking with 
you from college student life? A strange inquiry, you may think. 
After years of study and at the completion of the undergraduate 
course surely the student's mind must be in a well developed 
state. What else and what less could be expected? Observe, 
I do not have in view so much a stock of information, but, 
rather, accuracy of operation, strength of movement, power of 
thought — clear, penetrating, correct thought. To think well any- 
where and in every pursuit means influence, mastery of the sit- 
uation, final success. In the everyday occupations of men ever 
and anon knotty questions arise, plans of operation must be 
devised, difficulties must be overcome, and courses of action de- 
cided upon. Successful handling of these conditions requires 
a mind schooled in careful, exact thinking. What is there in 
human life, human history, human achievement which does not 
involve this mental operation ? Nothing. The works of men, in 
whatsoever calling, are one constant putting things together. 



The Twentieth Century — A Question 159 

From the garments you wear, the houses in which you live, the 
books you read, to the society in which you move, the govern- 
ment in which you live, and the world where you exist — all are 
the result of this power of mind. Under whatever circumstances 
you may find yourselves, wherever on this wide earth you dwell, 
in whatever profession, business or trade you may engage, one 
thing above all others you must do, namely, think. And to get 
on well and realize the best results, your thinking must be intense, 
accurate and broad. To possess this ability is surely a most 
valuable asset. Without it you are illy fitted to accomplish any- 
thing beyond keeping body and soul together a short while. 
With it you are qualified to go forth into the great world of 
human endeavor and perform your work of life with credit to 
yourselves and profit to others, leaving behind you at last an 
achievement worthy of a being possessed of an immortal mind. 
I pass on to inquire further: Is it a tender conscience and 
a warm heart you are taking with you away from your college 
associations? Conscience, the power within us which takes note 
of our individual acts and accredits them good or bad, right or 
wrong ; which approves or condemns us for what we do — a 
tender conscience, sensitive to the honorable, the noble, the 
worthy, the pure, the true; which hates all vileness and loves 
all beauty — this is a priceless treasure. It may be kept; it may 
be lost. The latter always proves to be disastrous to a good 
and truly happy life. And what other kind of life becomes 
you and do you really desire? Are you not constituted for 
goodness ? The beast of the field is not so made, and no amount 
of development can ever bring it to be in nature and capacity 
what it is not. The human creature is otherwise. While he 
possesses all that the animal has, still he boasts of something 
more. A something more not gotten out of his environment 
and by the magic of naturalistic evolution, but that is his from 
the beginning of his existence, that is not of the earthly, but 
of the heavenly, and that puts him in kinship with the infinite 
soul. The human mind as reason knows the right, the good as an 
unchangeable principle. Conscience declares that you are right, 
you are good, or that you are wrong, you are bad in the deeds 



160 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

you perform. A tender conscience is quick to note the moral 
quality of your acts, and with forceful address approves or dis- 
approves your individual conduct and course of living. And is 
the presence of this high authority of little moment in the work- 
ing out of the mission of your existence? Can a tender con- 
science be suppressed, or conscience itself be pushed far into the 
background of your life, and you still be able to build up and 
maintain for yourself a character, noble and good, one that will 
ever bear the light of a clear day? Can you take a place beside 
the princes of righteousness, and know yourself to be of the 
glorious company of the good, if conscience is not supreme in 
the judgments of self? 

Suppose it were so, which I trust it is not, that in these days 
of college life you have lost a tender conscience, and that now 
you view the moral quality of your acts with indifference, how, 
in going out to do your life work, will you treat your fellow- 
men? In your dealings with them how will you act? What 
judgment will be the rule of your conduct? Conscience has been 
put out of sight, and you even sneer at the mention of the word. 
What will be your guide? Policy? Policy has never been 
introduced to the right. Or will you justify your course on the 
basis of "whatever is, is right?" But wrong is, therefore it is 
right ! In what absurdities such reasoning will plunge you ! Or 
will you undertake to frown down all moral obligation, and ease 
yourself by claiming that there is no fixed rule of right, and that 
the injuction, '"'Love thy neighbor as thyself," is the emptiest 
speech ? Who loves his neighbor as himself ? Who does not try 
to get all he can; and if he must cheat his fellowmen in order 
to gain a point and flourish, what is that to conscience? Any- 
thing to win is always justifiable because it wins. 

But, my young friends, there is a winning which is always 
a losing, and a losing that is always a winning. And what of 
your dealings with God? Conscience out of the question, how 
will you act? What law of His will you obey? What kind 
of service will you render Him? What need of Him will you 
daily feel? When His voice calls to you, "Where art thou?" 
what within you would there be to give quick response, "Here 
am I?" 



The Twentieth Century — A Question 161 

How far you would be from your Heavenly Father, and 
how utterly cut off from fellowship with Him! And is this of 
no worth to you? Can your life be what it ought to be amidst 
the various relations you will sustain in this time, and yet He 
be treated as though He were not? Some may think so, but 
as surely as man is a moral being his best life cannot be void 
of conscience and be perfect without God. 

There is bigger game than the success, the fame, the emolu- 
ments of this world. A life without conscience and God is never 
upward, but always downward. And where conscience is put 
down and silenced, there God cannot dwell. 

Going out into the world under the supposition made, what 
will you do with yourselves ? How live ? How act when honor, 
right and truth are before you? What will you do with them? 
In what way recognize their claims? What clear distinctions 
will you make between that which you ought and that which you 
ought not to do? What place can there be for the word 
Conscience in your vocabulary? And if you use it, what sig- 
nificance could it possibly have? Surely it would be without 
meaning — a word whose employment would be mockery to your- 
selves and a lie before God and man. Is the tender conscience — 
no longer a hating of all vileness and a loving of all beauty — not 
yours? And how has this come to be? In days gone by, when 
conscience disapproved, did you then persistently argue with your 
better self, "This that I have done is not so bad ; it is innocent ; 
others do it ; why not I ? Few, if any, perhaps, know that I have 
done it, my act was secret, and until it becomes public, why re- 
prove and condemn? I will not accept your decision, Con- 
science; you treat me badly in giving adverse judgment of my 
conduct, and by trying thus to humiliate me before myself. I 
will seek other fellowship." 

Sad, indeed, would be the condition of your moral self, if 
such treatment of conscience on your part were a fact. But I 
know better of you, and am sure that you are taking leave of 
college associations with a conscience whose judgments of your 
acts you are ever ready to heed, and accordingly direct the move- 
ments of your life. 



162 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

In going from us, I trust also that you are taking with you 
a warm heart. There will be need of it in the world of sorrow 
and care whither you are going. On every side you will find 
those who are in need of comfort and help. Ills and misfortunes 
have overtaken them. The shadows of suffering have crept over 
their hearts. They are cast down in spirit. They need to hear 
a cheerful voice, and have extended to them a strong hand. 
There are many, many aching hearts today, hearts pierced with 
the arrow of sin, hearts burdened with sorrow, and they need 
the cheering words of sympathy, the touch of loving souls. What 
opportunity for tender ministry this world of ours affords ! And 
are you not prepared to give it ? Ah ! it is the warm heart, the 
heart of tender, loving sympathy that draws to itself other hearts, 
finds a place in their truest affection, and moves them to noble 
deeds and a better life. I trust you have not grown envious 
through these years of college life, and jealous hearted, and 
selfish, and are departing from us with the avenues of your 
better nature closed. This would be to live only half a life, to 
be more than half dead. On the contrary, I believe it is with 
sympathetic soul and loving heart for the needy and distressed, 
the careworn and the weary, the unfortunate and the outcast, 
that you go forth. This will be to live most truly, and be like 
Him who, while here in the world, poured out His great soul 
on sorrowing and sinful humanity in loving kindness and tender 
mercies. 

Once more, are you taking with you as the best possession of 
all, a Christian soul ? In comparison with this, all else pales into 
littleness. Paul fitly describes it when he says: "Nevertheless 
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I 
now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me 
and gave Himself for me." This is the Christian soul, "Christ 
in you the hope of glory." What can this soul say? "If God 
be for me, who can be against me ? Who is he that condemneth ? 
It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again. Neither 
life nor death, nor things present nor things to come, neither 
angels nor principalities, neither height nor depth, nor any other 
creature shall be able to separate me from the love of God which 
is in Christ Jesus." 



The Twentieth Century — A Question 163 

What can this soul do? It can do all things through Christ 
who strengthens it. It can resist the tempter ; it can endure 
trial; it can war a good warfare; it can hold fast to the eternal 
God; it can live the life of the just; it can scatter seeds of kind- 
ness all along the way of earth's rugged road ; it can be a minister 
of joy and comfort to the weary and disconsolate ; it can win for 
itself an eternal crown of glory. Do you have a Christian soul 
to take with you into a world of distress and sin? Then will 
you prove a blessing indeed to the men and women of your day. 
Your life will be a ray of light to the weary, forlorn traveler, 
guiding him to the way of peace and joy. To be this is what 
even an angel might envy. 

And now, to have all these — a healthful body, an improved 
mind, a tender conscience, a warm heart and a Christian soul — 
what a solid basis for a true and honorable life ! How priceless 
the possession! With this you cannot fail. Immortal success 
will crown the days of your pilgrimage. And you will surely at 
last be found among those whom the King delighteth to honor. 



THE PROBLEM OF HUMAN LIFE 

My Young Friends: 

I ADDRESS you in the name of your Alma Mater. I speak 
not as a scientist, or a philosopher, but as a Christian teacher. 
The subject of my remarks to you is, "The Problem of Human 
Life and its Solution." I speak positively and say that it is 
the greatest of all problems which concern human beings; that 
it has invited for its solution the most stupendous undertaking 
which has ever been contrived and set on foot, and that in the 
face of most stubborn difficulties it has been most triumphantly 
solved ; and, lastly, that this solution is within the reach of possi- 
bility by every human creature. We are this afternoon to 
traverse no uncertain ground; nor are we to turn our backs on 
the greater light to walk in the dim glow of an earth-born fire; 
nor are we to extinguish the heavenly luminaries, and then, in 
the shadows of beclouded reason, seek a clear answer to the 
questions, "Whence came we? How came we? Who are we? 
Whither are we bound?" 

Contrariwise, our position is on well accredited knowledge, 
and in the brightness of the supernal day. We see men, not 
as trees walking, but as the sons of an eternal, personal God ; 
and we behold human life in its height reaching unto the Divine, 
in its depth fathoming the natural, and in its length and breadth 
touching whatever there is of existence, whether earthly or 
heavenly. 

Three points present themselves for our reflection: 

I. What is human life? 

II. What is the problem of human life? 

III. What is the solution of this problem? 



The Problem of Human Life 165 

I 

What is human life? 

Human life is a complex fact. The elements are natural 
and supernatural, or physical, intellectual and moral. These 
are distinct in kind, not merely different in degree. Man is a 
rational being, and the life which he lives is rational life. This 
is the prime characteristic of the human creature. If it be in- 
quired, "What is the basis of human life?" the answer must 
be ; first, not the physical and animal ; second, not the moral and 
spiritual alone, but the union of all these energies, such a union 
as creative power alone can produce. 

Plainly speaking, human life is the resultant of a welding 
together of the earthly and the heavenly. The purely natural 
has a life peculiar to itself, well marked, clearly defined. Like- 
wise the spiritual. These two, namely, the natural and the 
spiritual, in themselves considered, have, so far as we know, 
nothing in common. Each has absolutely its own realm. Hence, 
neither one can by itself be taken as essentially constituting human 
life. If it be the natural only that we have in mind, and purpose 
to state all truth relating to human life in terms of the physical 
and animal, then we admit the existence of but one world, the 
material, and our life sums itself up as so much nervous energy. 

If, on the other hand, it be the spiritual that we recog- 
nize, and mean to express all facts concerning ourselves as in 
essence spiritual, then we must adopt that view which idealizes 
both the seen and the unseen. 

So far as the universe goes, we reject the doctrine of 
Monism, that is, that everything is either matter or spirit. The 
spiritual has not been developed out of the physical, and the 
moral has not produced the material. The one is not a different 
state of the other. Both, in themselves considered, are inde- 
pendent existences. Both come from the same source, are 
effects of the same cause, the eternal self-conscious God. The 
one is impersonal force, the other is rational energy. 

According to the teachings of our Scriptures, these originally 
existed apart from one another. There were the world of matter 



166 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

and the world of spirit, each with its own capacities, powers and 
life, and without immediate communion. The universe presented 
the spectacle of a dualism unresolved. Up to this stage in the 
process of making finite creatures the Creator's work was mani- 
festly unfinished. The creative act of putting these diverse 
worlds together in the most perfect unity still remained to be 
performed. This was finally done, and as the result there ap- 
peared a creature who represents, on the one hand, the natural 
world in all its forces, and, on the other hand, all the energies 
of the spirit world. 

And this is man, a being who, in the constituent elements of 
his structure, is neither matter only, nor spirit only, but a union 
of the two in such a way that the higher nature communicates 
of its fullness to the lower nature, thus lifting up the natural 
above its native sphere, imparting to it a refinement which other- 
wise it could not possess, and endowing it with a vitality which, 
in a state of insolation, it never could have possessed. In this 
union lies the deep mystery of human existence — a mystery no 
science or philosophy of man is able to expound. 

Of the two natures in the human creature each has its own 
life. Each was made to have life in itself. But as these 
natures are joined together in an inseparable unity, so likewise 
is the life of the one united with the life of the other, giving 
as a result living energy, not as we find it in the kingdom of 
plants and animals, but as we know it in the kingdom of man — 
of human life. 

This is truly a peculiar fact; peculiar in what it is, a union 
of the material and the immaterial, of nature and spirit ; a union 
in which the dualism of the personal and impersonal disappears 
and by virtue of which there exists a living unity, namely, a 
living soul. Moreover, it is peculiar in that it is an original 
fact; original because it is an existence entirely new, its exact 
likeness never having previously been ; original, because it is the 
only solution of the problem of matter and spirit existing as 
parts of the same universe, but in perpetual harmony ; and, lastly, 
original because it is typical of that higher unity between the 
Creator and His Creation which has found historic reality in 
the incarnation of the Son of God. 



The Problem of Human Life 167 

Again, this fact of human life is peculiar in its mystery. 
There is, we all know, a strange mystery of life everywhere. 
In plant and animal we see something of its operation, but our 
eyes fail to penetrate its depths and behold the secret of its 
existence. Much more is our own life sealed against our under- 
standing and hidden from our acutest thought. We cannot 
comprehend the life that is our own. At times we think we have 
worked our way into the light of clear day, and are able to say 
how human life has arisen, and what its process of coming into 
being. We congratulate ourselves that much of its mystery has 
been made to vanish. Presently, however, we face the fact that, 
in our attempt to solve the mystery of human life, the fact 
itself has been cast out of our apprehension, and that which we 
judged ourselves to have apprehended is only the invention of 
our own imagination; not human life, the union of nature and 
spirit, but only a higher form of one element of this existence 
— natural life. The mystery of human life is the mystery of 
creation and not of evolution. 

Furthermore, human life is peculiar in the range of its 
possibilities and the reach of its capacity. For one thing it has 
capacity to appropriate the natural in the widest extent and weave 
it into the fabric of its own development. Comprehending as it 
does in itself all there is essentially of the physical and irra- 
tional, it has for these the closest affinity, and can with readiness 
lay them under contribution for the products of that evolutionary 
process of which it is the causal agent and guiding genius. For 
another thing it has capacity to appropriate the supernatural, and 
is able to join it with the natural into a history of ever advancing 
deeds. Having within itself truly the divine, it is not limited 
in the reach of its ability to the boundaries of the natural world. 
It transcends these and becomes the possessor of an excellence 
that is not of the earth, earthy, but of heaven, heavenly. Human 
life is the mediator between nature and God. It forms these 
into perpetual union, and in its own upward development, or 
evolution, if you please, evolves, not nature only, as naturalism 
holds, nor God only, as some pantheists teach, but the divine 
and the natural into an unified existence, thus producing a 



168 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

history that is not mere natural product, nor merely a series of 
Divine acts, but a great fact which is a human work, having for 
its elements material appropriated on the one side from nature, 
and on the other from the inexhaustible fullness of the Divine. 

In the light of the foregoing statements, how manifest the 
superlative value of human life ! What a profound meaning it 
has ! Nothing earthly is comparable with it ! Nature in its 
most perfect types has no existence comparable with it in worth. 
Natural force, however powerful, is never able to do or achieve 
what human life in its evolutionary activities constantly accom- 
plishes. Nature produces no human deeds, nor does God live 
human history. But human life ever unfolds itself by means of 
God and nature into a history of work and achievement that is 
pre-eminently rational, and shows forth the unity of the material 
and the immaterial, the oneness of Creator and creature. 

At the same time it is evident that man occupies the supreme 
place in the existing universe. He is not a part of this universe, 
as the animal, the plant and mineral are parts of the several 
kingdoms of nature. He is not one among many. He dwells 
in a higher sphere. He is above nature, and yet inseparably 
connected with the natural world. He is beneath God, but still 
everlastingly associated with Him as His image. Both spiritual 
and natural, he stands forth the last and fittest work of creative 
power, and holds in the universe of creatures the first and 
highest possible position. There is no higher creature, there 
never can be. Man is at the head of all created existences, the 
summation of their powers, the lord of their movements, whose 
work and destiny are to evolve spirit and nature into an organic 
unity. 

This leads to our next inquiry : 

II 

What is the problem of human life? 

Human life has a problem, the great supreme problem 
of creative existence. It has an end to reach, a purpose to 
realize. There is with human life a final cause. Otherwise it 



The Problem of Human Life 169 

would be mere blind movement, not rational fact. It is not 
sufficient to say that every energy always proceeds in action 
according to its nature, for the reason that this nature which is 
its distinction is but the reflection, or, rather, we may say, the 
impress, of its final cause. No one can with consistency deny 
the doctrine of ends in reason. The very act by which he at- 
tempts such effort is proof of his inconsistency; for what does 
an analysis of his argument evince? Have not the arrangements 
of his proposition an orderly movement, and are they not so con- 
nected as to give a specific conclusion? The facts which the 
objector uses, are they not the same that he employs to get other 
results that have a bearing directly on final ends? Finding 
arguments to support a given proposition, and using facts in 
different ways to get different results, what is all this mental 
procedure but action under the impulse and guidance of final 
cause? If human reason, as we know it, always acts in the 
light of seeing the end from the beginning, what less conviction 
can we have that the Absolute Reason eternally proceeds in the 
clearness of an infinite wisdom? And now, since human life 
finds its source in the creative power and knowledge of a rational 
Author, it must have a final cause. The attainment of this high 
end constitutes its problem. 

But for what reason did God make and set it going? I 
answer, for the purpose of obtaining, in the fullest measure, a 
reproduction of Himself. God is eternally reproducing Himself. 
This is the mightiest act of infinite power and goodness. This 
is what creation means, if it means anything. The natural world, 
with its diversity of living forms, is an expression of divine ex- 
cellence, and just so far is a revelation of the Supreme Being. The 
world of spirit is likewise an expression of the divine nature in 
its moral aspect, thus furnishing a more advanced revelation of 
the infinitely holy and righteous One. And, lastly, man, who 
combines in himself spirit and nature, expresses the harmony 
of these two factors as it exists in the possibilities of the Divine 
nature, thus comprehending more of God than either nature or 
spirit taken separately displays. 

In the production of man God has made a creature most 



170 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

like Himself — a creature whose life in its immortal development 
will perpetually reproduce more and more nearly its infinite 
original, the eternal life of the Most High. This likeness to 
God is the final aim and purpose of human life. It is at the same 
time the highest good, as the Psalmist has truly said : "I will 
be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness." True, this phrase, 
"the highest good," is used in different senses. What is it? 
Many answers are given. All, at last, are resolvable into two 
classes, one representing a false conception, and the other the 
true. The first is the heathen notion ; the second, the Christian 
idea. Our Savior has stated them, according to the record of 
Matthew's Gospel, on this wise: 'Take no thought saying, 
What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal 
shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles 
seek. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteous- 
ness, and all these things shall be added unto you." There is 
a natural good, but it is not to be for man the chief good. Man 
is capable of appropriating vastly more. His life transcends the 
sensuous just by so much as it contains the rational and moral 
element. The end of this life is not to be like the natural, but 
like Him who is the source of both nature and spirit. And this it 
accomplishes by transforming the natural and the spiritual into 
the most glorious expression of the divine perfection. In de- 
claring that the Kingdom of God is the highest good, Christ 
does not reject a natural good; He simply teaches this order: 
God first, the all-satisfying portion; nature second. The heathen 
reverses this order, making nature the final cause of human life, 
and lays down the rule for our living on this fashion : "Let us 
eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die." Christianity, 
on the other hand, teaches that for man God is the Supreme 
Good, and that without Him human life would be left utterly 
destitute. 

The true mission of the soul of man is to be partaker of 
the divine nature in its fullness. To realize the sublime con- 
ception of the Divine mind ; to attain the final purpose of the 
Divine will, and to possess both for the ages of this world and 
those which are beyond — this is the problem of human life — 



The Problem of Human Life 171 

human life as it is manifested in the family, in society, in the 
state and in the individual. 

Ill 
What is the solution of this problem? 

In stating the correct answer to this question we must take 
human life as we find it. No abstract or imaginary view will 
suffice. Beyond debate human life is not now as it originally was. 
A disastrous mischance, somehow, sometime, has taken place. 
Human life did not begin in barbarism. The connections of the 
generations point backward to a most happy state of the human 
creature in the dawn of his existence — a golden age, when heaven 
and earth were in full unison and human life was Paradise. 

But a fearful revolution occurred. God and man were rent 
asunder. The nobler powers of human life were paralyzed. A 
foreign element insinuated itself into the human soul, blinded 
its understanding, corrupted its imagination, perverted its activity, 
and destroyed its hope. It was sin — that moral disorder which 
has permeated the life of the human creature and made it utterly 
impotent to reach the sublime destiny for which it was con- 
stituted. Human life is lost. This is its condition under the 
reign of sin. 

I know full well that other views are entertained, but in 
support of what I have said, I first call to the witness stand 
individual experience — your own experience, limited as this may 
be, the experience of every age, the historic recital of crime and 
vice, of the wickedness and ungodliness of men throughout the 
long centuries. What is this testimony? Is it not that human 
life is cursed with sin? And then, second, I call the Gospel as 
witness, and inquire, "Why are you here ? What work have you 
to do that could not be done as well and even better without 
your presence ?" The answer comes clear and full : "I am here 
to rescue and recover sinful man, to seek and to save the lost." 

The real question, therefore, is, "What is the solution of the 
problem of sinful human life?" If the soul of man were as it 
was originally, then it would be easy to say how the problem of 



172 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

human existence could be solved. It would have gone on in its 
divinely intended career without a halt or jar, joyously attaining 
the divine end in view at the beginning. But sin has come into 
the life of the human creature and wrought a change. Moral 
disobedience and guilt have polluted and robbed the fairest work- 
manship of God of its beauty and strength. Human life has 
been sadly marred and weakened, so that when it would do good 
evil is present. It finds a law which brings it into captivity, 
making it cry out, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall 
deliver me from the body of this death?" 

And now the question comes, How can this life, so deeply 
hurt by sin, fulfill the purpose of its origin? How solve the 
problem? A method which has been proposed and much adver- 
tised is this: Assume that sin is not sin, not moral wrong and 
guilt, not an assault on the divine nature and a defiance of holy 
law, but only a defect which belongs to the nature of finite things, 
the imperfection of unfinished development, a necessary element 
of progress, and then the best state is surely reached in a most 
natural way. For one thing, it is sufficient to obey the laws of 
nature ; for another, to acquire scientific knowledge ; for a third, 
to attain aesthetic culture ; and for a fourth to practice the teach- 
ing of natural religion. 

The first is worthless as a chief direction under any circum- 
stance, for human life in its superior element is moral. The 
second is far too partial, for the human soul is vastly more 
than intellect. The third is altogether deceptive, because man 
is pre-eminently ethical: while the fourth is inadequate either 
in Paradise or out of it, since the human soul is evermore athirst 
for God and cannot be at rest without the communion of His 
love. Especially are all these efforts futile when it is remembered 
that the soul of man is dead in trespasses and sins and lost. 
Laws of nature, scientific knowledge, culture of the beautiful, 
light of a natural world — none of these, nor all together, can 
furnish a solution of the deep problem of sinful human life. 

But if not these, what can? How get the true answer, the 
resultant originally designed? What must be the first step in 
the process? There is but one reply — Salvation. Sinful human 



The Problem of Human Life 173 

life must first be saved ; otherwise the problem not only becomes 
impossible of solution, but ceases to be a problem. But what does 
salvation mean? It means rescue, recovery, and redemption. 

And how can human life, ruined by sin, be redeemed? 
There is only one way — by atonement. "Without the shedding 
of blood there is no remission of sins." This is God's way, de- 
manded by the divine righteousness and approved by infinite 
love. Nothing less could by any possibility avail. It was an 
enormous undertaking, vast beyond the highest finite conception, 
involving in its execution heaven and earth. With human life 
corrupted and ruined, everything was at stake. But nature dare 
not fall into nothingness. Spirit must not vanish. Perpetual 
antagonism between the two great worlds of creation cannot 
be. Human life must be saved, else the great purpose of God 
in making a universe will be defeated, and this cannot, must not 
be. With the human soul steeped in sin everything is involved — 
the majesty of the divine law, the integrity of the divine govern- 
ment, the inexhaustible resources of eternal love, and the ex- 
istence of the finite creature. For God to lose human life is to 
lose His universe, precious in His sight. If there were no human 
life any more that God can call His own and in which He may 
dwell, then the keystone of the great arch of creation is gone 
forever. 

On account of what the life of man is, the unity of nature and 
spirit, redemption is a necessity. On account of what sin is, 
the highest evil, this redemption can only be accomplished by 
means of blood atonement. And this is precisely what has taken 
place. "When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth 
His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to be the 
propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins 
of the whole world." "But Christ being come, our great High 
Priest, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with 
hands, that is to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of 
calves and goats, but by His own precious blood, He entered in 
once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption 
for us." 

A little more than eighteen hundred years ago in human 



174 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

history this event occurred. It was on Mount Calvary that the 
climax was reached. It was there that the sinless Jesus laid down 
His life, and through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without 
spot unto God as our atoning sacrifice — the ransom for the human 
life. It was on the Cross, through inconceivable suffering and 
death, the just for the unjust, that the offended justice of a holy 
God was satisfied, and the riches of the divine love were exposed 
to view. There a fountain was opened, "drawn from Immanuel's 
veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty 
stains." Christ died for us ; but more, He rose from the dead 
for our justification. On the Cross He laid down His life; in 
the grave He lay. That was a dark hour seemingly for the 
human race when the Second Adam yielded up the Ghost. The 
kingdom of sin had marshalled its legions. He who had come 
to rescue and save, Himself was dead. But on the morning of 
the third day, how changed the scene! At the door of the 
sepulcher there stands the Crucified One. He lives again, and 
is alive forevermore. The hosts of sin who have camped about 
His tomb are gone. Looking into the empty tomb, He calmly 
but triumphantly exclaims: "O death, where is thy sting? O 
grave, where is thy victory?" 

This is the Savior of the world, He who, with garments dyed 
in His own blood, has come by the way of Mount Calvary, 
glorious in His apparel, travailing in the greatness of His 
strength, mighty to save. 

"Soul of a lost race, awake from thy sadness ; 
Awake, for thy foes shall oppress thee no more; 
Bright o'er the hills dawns the Day Star of gladness, 
Rise, for the night of thy sorrows is o'er. 

Strong were thy foes, but the arms that subdues them, 
And scattered their legions was mightier far : 

They fled like the chaff from the scourge that pursued them; 
Vain were their steeds and their chariots of war." 

Through the Cross of Calvary and the riven tomb, sinful 
human life has been rescued and saved. Though lost and dead, 
it is found and alive again. God in Jesus Christ has rescued 



The Problem of Human Life 175 

sinful human life, and for Himself thereby solved the problem 
of a lost soul. 

Man is not an eternal outcast. Humanity is not a hopeless 
wreck. The human soul is not shattered in pieces and left in 
endless ruin. It has been redeemed, not with corruptible things., 
as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of the Lamb that 
was slain. It has been rescued from the dreadful power of the 
arch enemy. It has been delivered from the captivity of sin by 
the omnipotent hand of an Elder Brother, and now flourishes 
with immortal vigor in the Kingdom of God. It is now safe 
forever. No unfriendly power can ever again strike it down. 
Exalted above all principalities, even to the right hand of God, 
it is beyond the reach of any danger, and will through the future 
ages become more and more like Him who first formed it in 
His image, and afterward by His own strong hand and priceless 
life saved it from eternal death. Behold it as it appears in the 
heavenly places, so pure, so lovely, so great. How it shines, even 
beyond the noontide splendor of the sun, and declares in loftiest 
speech the glory of God! This is the Lord's doing, and it is 
marvelous in our eyes. 

My young friends, how can you solve this problem? It is 
before you. With it you must grapple. You cannot escape it 
or evade it, saying, It is of no concern to me. Or do you intend 
to try over again that old method which so many have attempted 
and utterly failed — the way of the natural man? How foolish 
this would be ! Deceive not yourselves. The great life you 
have — not great only in its origin, but in its possible destiny — 
has been deeply wronged and harmed. It is sinful and lost, 
and if it abide in this state, must go to wreck and ruin. Believe 
me, my friends, I am telling you no fable or myth. Open your 
eyes. Look back over the long course of humankind. See how 
men of this world have tried to win the inheritance of a 
glorious immortality, and have gone down in the vain struggle; 
and do you have it in mind to repeat this folly? Oh, no! In 
this matter let your conscience be supreme. Whatever you do, 
do not stifle its convictions by insisting, "I am not bad. I have 
no guilt whose stains blot my soul. I am not sick, but well. I 
am not dead, but alive." 



176 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

Do you turn to me and say, "I'll show you whether I am 
not strong. I can take care of myself, remove every hindrance, 
overcome every difficulty, and win immortal success." Ah! 
that is an old speech. Millions before you have made it, but 
they are catalogued in the history of the human soul as those 
who fought for a kingdom and crown and lost the battle. They 
serve as your painful warning, and not as your illustrious en- 
samples. Never by the power of nature, however refined it may 
be, however potent, can you solve the problem of your life. 
There is but one way, and that is the way of the Gospel. 

Your soul is lost in sin. First of all, it must be saved. It 
is useless to talk about development into something better or 
evolution of something higher, nobler. Development there will 
be. Evolution will go on. But what unseemly, worthless pro- 
ducts will result. Instead of being upward, the movement must 
be even downward; instead of improvement, deterioration. 

Quickly you turn to me and say: "Look at the history of 
the race. Here is evolution, a striking movement from the 
lower to the higher, and from the good to the better. What 
progress has been made through the centuries of human action ! 
What successes have been achieved, and how far advanced in all 
the elements of a great civilization, the arts, the sciences and 
politics, is the man of today beyond the man of five thousand 
years ago !" 

Precisely so. But there have been through these, over against 
the energies of sin, good powers, the powers of redeeming love. 
Their influence has reached into every nook and corner of 
human history. They raised up the fallen, cheered the faint, 
strengthened the weak, comforted the distressed, and inspired 
the despondent with buoyant hope. They have saved the 
evolution of human life in history from being the annals of 
perdition. Against principalities and powers, against the 
rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness 
in high places, they have kept the way to the tree of life. 

These are the powers that you need in your life. Without 
them, at last you will fail. With them as your ever present 
possession, you will go forward in a most illustrious career. You 



The Problem of Human Life 177 

will ever evolve the noble, the good, the godlike, always showing 
that human life is no mistake, but the noblest creature of God. 

Through the Gospel of Jesus Christ alone can you solve the 
problem of your existence. These are my last words to you as 
the graduating class of Wittenberg College. Be assured that 
you go forth from us with the hope on our part that you will 
reach a most happy end, and with the prayer that the grace of 
God will keep your minds and hearts through Jesus Christ our 
Lord. Amen. 



LIFE'S TRUE IDEAL 

The Twentieth Baccalaureate Address 

My Young Friends: 

TODAY is for you a time of peculiar interest. You have 
finished a course of study, and have reached a stage in 
your lives where a decision must be made, a far-reaching decision. 
You are now to determine what course you will take, what end 
you will pursue; in short, the concern with you now is, what is 
the vocation which shall rule your whole future life? 

Above and beyond such decision, however, is another of 
vaster moment. In this time the supreme question with you is 
not, "What calling in human life shall I undertake and prose- 
cute?" This is, after all, not the chief concern. But the vital, 
searching decision is, "Wherever I shall be, in whatever pursuit 
engaged, whatever my calling, one purpose shall be the rule of 
my action ; a single aim shall govern my life : namely, the best use 
of all my powers, powers of body, powers of mind, powers of 
soul, for the highest good of myself, my fellows, and for the 
discharge of my obligation to Almighty God." 

You wish to pursue a successful career? Surely. But in what 
does a truly successful life consist? The man of this world, the 
twentieth century man, says : "To be something, to be at the 
top, is to get and to have the goods of time. Such achievement 
marks the successful man, the man who does something that is 
tangible, and perforce is something. He shows what he can do. 
He can make money, and to have money is to have the highest 
good." But it is one thing to possess means and to possess them 
abundantly ; it is quite another to use them and to use them wisely. 

If I were directing you how to live a truly successful life, 
I should say, first, you must have a right governing purpose, 
such as I have indicated. Second, you must ever cultivate a 



Life's True Ideal 179 

tender conscience ; third, you must ever maintain a pure 
and upright heart; fourth, you must keep fresh in exercise a 
Christian faith; and, fifth, you must put your veritable self into 
the work you do. 

The truly successful life is not ephemeral, the impersonal, 
but it is the permanent, the personal. At last the truly suc- 
cessful life is what man, the union of nature and spirit, the 
personal creature, makes himself to be, or into what, by the use 
of all the means at his command, it is possible for him to develop 
himself ; or, again, it is the largest realization of the possibilities 
of rational existence. The sum of it all is character, human 
character, the only work of man which is immortal. To build 
a character whose climax is the likeness of divine excellence is, 
in the end, the ultimate business of the human powers, the reason 
for which they exist and are framed precisely as they are. 

To do this work, namely, develop a godlike character, is to 
achieve success — that success whose memory never perishes, and 
which needs no shaft or towering dome to perpetuate its fame. 
It abides everlastingly. It is as immortal as the good man him- 
self ; it is the good man. 

To this undertaking my young friends, namely, the develop- 
ment of a godlike character, I advise and urge you. As 
sources from which you may gather the needful material, you 
have around you the natural realm in all its diversified forms, 
and within you the supernatural grace and power in their com- 
municable fullness. With these elements at your disposal you 
can go forward, wherever you may be and in whatever calling, 
in the prosecution of your life work, whose accomplishment you 
have been well fitted to perform. 

After the opinion of men of this world you may attain a 
certain kind of success ; but according to the ordainment of God, 
it may prove to be an ultimate failure. In the end it will surely 
come out that, following the wisdom of this world, you will have 
entirely misconceived the meaning of your existence ; and so, 
while you thought you were getting much, at last you will have 
found you had nothing. 

I know there are those who would give you different counsel. 



180 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

They would impress on you the idea that a man's life consists 
in the abundance of the things he possesses, and that the only 
success about which you need to concern yourselves, is the suc- 
cess after the fashion that this world reckons success. They 
would tell you that the end of human existence is happiness, and 
that the sure way to get it is to secure the largest number of 
objects for sensuous gratification. In other words, such coun- 
selling would bid you obtain as much as you can eat, drink and 
wear. As for knowledge, that is useful only so far as your 
business goes ; as for morality, that is a matter of expedience 
only; and as for religion, that is simply phantasy. 

Human life, in the ultimate reckoning, is only a huge joke, 
they tell us ; only the arena for sport and hilarity. The final 
meaning of it all is: "Seek success in business, in professional 
activity, in whatever calling you pursue, in order that you may 
have the largest amount of pleasure. After this comes the grave, 
where there is no trade, no commerce, no business, no professional 
pursuit, no sport, no enjoyment; for there we are not, and beyond 
we do not go." 

Do not understand me to say that you should have no con- 
cern for the things of this lifetime. By no means. These have 
their rightful place, their necessary use. Without them you can- 
not attain the fullest development. So far as concerns the 
human creature, the natural cannot be divorced from the spiritual, 
and still permit this creature to become what he ought to be and 
was meant to be. Asceticism is a mistaken view of human life, 
and of the perfection man in his striving should seek to reach; 
just as Epicureanism, the opposite extreme, is also thoroughly 
mistaken in its conception of human existence and the purpose 
for which, by its endowments, it is clearly destined. The one 
counts the physical worth nothing, and hence no object for 
striving: the other estimates it to be the only value there is, and 
therefore its pursuit and possession the supreme aim of our 
living. 

The true view is this : the natural is a means, a necessary 
means, for human development; likewise the spiritual; and these 
two, brought into union in human life by the process of approp- 



Life's True Ideal 181 

riation and forming, constitute man at the climax of his existence, 
what he can be and what he ought to be. The human creature 
at perfection is the union of nature and grace. He is the con- 
solidation of the earthly and the heavenly. And so I come back 
to what I previously said; let the supreme aim of your life be 
to use your God-given powers in such wise that you will achieve 
the best for yourselves, and for your fellows, and fairly meet 
the high responsibilities of a human being. In all your doing, in all ■ 
your pursuing, aim to build your enduring house of fit material 
and in such way that it will ever be your joy and glory. 

Much is expected of you. Your opportunities for improve- 
ment have been excellent. You have had time and advantage 
for the strengthening of your powers unto the day of action and 
struggle. Your friends are hoping for much from you. The 
college expects you to do superior work, and the world, with 
critical eye, will watch to see of what mettle you are and what 
you are able to achieve. Take up your life work with courage, 
and faith, and hope. Live to become great, great in those 
virtues which adorn an immortality of honor and glory. Choose 
for yourselves the best ideal of human life, and make its realiza- 
tion in your history the aim of ceaseless endeavor ; ever resolving, 
"this one thing I do; I press toward the mark of the high 
calling." 

This ideal you will not find in nature, neither in the lives of 
men, however renowned, nor in the teachings of science, the arts, 
or philosophy. True, they say much about the ideal of human 
life ; indeed, their aim seems to be to exhibit the climax of man's 
best endeavor in its fullness, in its perfectness. In answer to 
the question, "What is this ideal?" they respond, "Culture." 
One party says intellectual culture; a second, scientific; a third, 
aesthetic. All agree, however, in claiming that the perfection 
of human life in culture, whether it be of logical thought, or 
of natural truth, or of aesthetic sentiment. 

But I must remind you that the best ideal of our life does 
not consist in culture of any sort, not in the perfection of any 
quality, neither in the sheer absence of natural defects, nor in 
any kind of abstract conception. 



182 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

Again, this ideal is that which can be and may be. It is 
not only the possible, existing merely as a conception of the imagi- 
nation but without objective reality; on the contrary, this ideal 
is a fact, a concrete reality. It exists. The perfect man lives; 
He is the man of Galilee. Jesus of Nazareth is humanity's 
climax. He is what you and I ought to be, what the 
whole human race ought to be. Not only so, but He is 
what Adam and his sons can become — the perfect man before 
God. It must ever be observed that this perfect man exists 
through union of the divine and human, and is a complete unity 
— in fact, is this union. 

The world's ideal of the perfect man is of an entirely dif- 
ferent order. Here the human creature stands alone, and is 
assumed to possess an ability sufficient in itself to attain the state 
of the perfect one. There is no need of the communication of 
a higher fullness. No union of God and man is requisite in order 
that the human creature may realize in his own life the highest 
possibilities of his endowments. The world's ideal of man's per- 
fection supposes that he is altogether self-sufficient for his life 
task. When he has reached the goal, he will be dependent on no 
one. God Himself will be entirely separate. They will be two, 
not one. If, however, a union or unity be claimed, and it be 
said emphatically that this ideal of the perfect one expresses the 
oneness of God and man, it must be borne in mind that this world's 
conception of a perfect humanity is the conception of the same 
thing at a certain stage of its evolution. The world ideal of 
perfect humanity must, therefore, be called the perfection of 
nature. 

The Christ ideal, on the other hand, exhibits a vastly dif- 
ferent view. Here we have the great historical reality, human 
life lived unto perfection. Here is this perfection of which the 
human powers are capable, not separate from, but in unison with 
God. This perfection, I say, is perfectly realized, existing, not 
as a perfection in a thing, originally and essentially unconscious 
will, but in a person who possessed the fullness of human nature, 
as well as of the Divine, is very man and very God, the two in 
incomparable union. He is the unparalleled reality in the history 



Life's True Ideal 183 

of the human race. He is not an individual among individuals, 
like Caesar and Shakespeare, but the individual of all individuals 
of the universe. He is not a man among men, eminent above 
the men of mankind, but the man of all men. He is not a son 
of man standing at the head of other sons, but He is the Son of 
man. He is solitary and alone. There is none other. His dis- 
tinction is without exception. He is the sublime, historical, 
personal reality. 

The basis of His existence is person ; His life is the 
life of person ; His perfect excellence is the excellence of 
person. He is the ideal personality. Personality of what? 
Of perfect obedience. He is the obedient one. Of perfect self- 
sacrifice ; He gives Himself for the redemption of a ruined world. 
Of suffering love; He is the one who was made perfect through 
suffering. Whatever virtue of moral character there may be, 
it has its reality, as a personal excellence in its most perfect form, 
in Jesus of Nazareth. He is the virtue. He is the excellence. 
This is the best ideal of human life — the only true ideal, the 
only ideal of human bliss that is possible for realization by the 
human creature, by you and me; and for the simple reason that 
it exists, not as a dream of the imagination, but as a sublime fact, 
as an immortal reality. Jesus of Nazareth, who is now in the 
heavenly places, even at the right hand of God, is this ideal. He 
is the pattern for you and me, and for all men. To live as He 
lived ; to toil and struggle as He struggled and toiled ; to be sub- 
missive to the Divine will as He was submissive ; to love God as 
He loved God, and our neighbor as He loved His neighbor — ah ! 
this is our inspiring possibility, our opportunity ; it is to realize the 
only true and perfect model of human life. This is the ideal 
that, above all things, you should choose as the supreme end 
of your life. To realize this in your history more and more, 
as the days and years go by, is the noblest task that you can 
achieve, and the only experience that will prove to be thoroughly 
satisfying. "I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness." 
Let this be the purpose of your hearts : "This one thing I do. 
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God 
in Jesus Christ." 



184 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

You are going out into a restless, dissatisfied, and yet, withal, 
a self-trusting world. You will find much to encourage you in 
your toils and struggles ; and, I must admonish you, much to 
discourage you as well; nevertheless, press toward the mark. 
There will come times when all is fair and promising, and other 
days when the very foundations seem to be slipping from under- 
neath your feet; nevertheless, press toward the mark. As the 
years go on, the burdens of life will grow heavier, and people 
will rise up to thwart your aims, and conflicts will deepen, and 
you may become weary and faint and sad; nevertheless, press 
toward the mark which God has set for you in Jesus Christ. 
Doing this, be assured you will shine more and more brightly 
unto the perfect day. 

Wherever you may be, in whatever circumstances, in pros- 
perity or adversity, in joy or in sorrow, in toil or in battle, keep 
steadily before you the eternal pattern of your life. In short, 
be Christian men and women. Develop a Christian manhood 
and womanhood after the model set before you in Jesus Christ. 
This, this, above everything else, I charge you before God and 
this assembly to do. Then will your life be an immortal success. 
In the ages coming you will shine as the sun in the eternal king- 
dom of God. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be ; but we 
know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we 
shall see Him as He is." 

With this I close my twentieth baccalaureate address to the 
graduating class of Wittenberg College. From first to last it 
has been my aim to set Jesus of Nazareth before you as the 
wisdom and power of God, and as the joy and hope and life of 
the human soul. Over against the notions of men of this world, 
I have proclaimed Him as the Redeemer and Savior of a sinful 
human race, as the only true pattern of a perfect human life, and 
the only one' possible of realization. Over against the theories 
of men concerning the highest good and its attainment, I have 
known Jesus of Nazareth only as the highest good for the human 
soul, and, therefore, emphatically a personal being; no mere 
abstract conception of the human mind, but the supreme Personal 
Existence of the universe. I have declared Him to be the in- 



Life's True Ideal 185 

dividual of all individuals, the kingdom of all kingdoms; which 
means that He, in His personal reality, is the absolute principle 
of the universe, the Unifier, yea, the true Unity of all things. 

This is the problem of the ages. Men have sought the way 
of its solution. They are trying now, with an earnestness which 
perhaps has not been characteristic of the past. But they are 
failing just as their predecessors have failed. They are following 
the pantheistic methods. They adopt the theory of the imper- 
sonal essence as the fundamental reality, and expect by the means 
of an abstract idea to work out the harmonious unity of all men 
and the world. This is the gist of the whole humanitarian move- 
ment of the day, the chief movement of the times. At bottom, 
it is pantheistic in the idea it seeks to realize, and the view of 
human life it so vigorously advocates. Men of today 
will fail, are failing in their attempted solution of the mighty 
problem of the universe. The unifier of men and their ways is 
no principle of law or force of nature. I point them, as I point 
you, to Jesus of Nazareth, the great Personality of the universe, 
the Man of men and the eternal God in one person. He is the one 
who, in Himself and by virtue of what He is, is the eternal solu- 
tion of the great problem of existence. He is their unifier and 
their unity, joining all things in Himself. He is the kingdom of 
all kingdoms, the King of kings. The pre-eminently real, the 
pre-eminently enduring is the personal, and this personal finds 
its sole exhibition in the Man of Galilee, who is the eternally 
begotten Son of God. This is Paul's idea, and the voice of 
revelation. For it is declared that, in the dispensation of the 
fullness of times, "God will gather together in one all things in 
Christ, both which are in heaven and which are in earth, even 
in Him; in whom we have obtained an eternal inheritance." 

The peace of God which passeth all understanding keep your 
hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen. 



THE GKEATEST NEED 

My Young Friends: 

I CONGRATULATE you on a succssful termination of your 
college course. The first period of your individual career 
is drawing to a close. In a few days you will go out from these 
academic halls into a sphere of new activity. Before that hour 
comes it is wise that you should consider whither you are going 
and what you will most need through the remaining years of your 
lifetime, to achieve truest success, and assure yourselves of the 
possession of that substantial good without which human life is 
written in the record of eternity as a disastrous failure. 

You are about to enter a world of intensest action. Never 
in previous times were the stir and bustle and movement of a 
generation so hurried as now. The time in which we live is not 
asleep, nor half awake, nor moving at a jogging rate. It is wide 
awake and moving forward with impetuous speed. Busy men 
and women are everywhere observable. Pushing, rushing mill- 
ions, eager, energetic, from the scene of an age that lives as 
much in a day as have some ages of the remoter past in a hundred 
years. Once the most enlightened people on earth, with staff in 
hand, walked through time ; then with quickened step they moved 
along their pilgrimage, but now with amazing speed they run in 
haste to reach the goal of their earthly career. Action! action! 
busy, lively, intense action describes a marked feature of our 
time. 

Again, the world of today is in an agitated state. A deep 
unrest prevails. Dissatisfaction with the present order of things 
is clearly manifest. The vast populations of working people are 
in a disquiet mood. They are restless, discontent, under a con- 
viction that their lot is hard, and that, under the oppression of 
capital, they are forced to be "hewers of wood and drawers of 
water." Cast amid the whirl of a greedy living, they feel that 



The Greatest Need 187 

no chance is given them to rise to something nobler and better, 
and attain a happier state. Their seer discerns no coming of a 
brighter day. They toil and struggle to win their bread, im- 
patient with the fortune that classed them with the hired workers 
of the world. As the years go by, this troubled way of life 
becomes rougher, and diminishes into a narrow passage, crowding 
the multitude together in their rush to get upon a higher plane 
where there is clear sunshine, pure air, and room for healthful, 
vigorous exercise of the greatest energies of the human soul. 

Further, this world of mankind, so restless and dissatisfied 
with its socialistic state, is tossed about in a high wave of doubt. 
The more substantial realities of existence are imagined to be 
myth or legend. Religion, with its deep concerns, is classed 
among the vagaries of the human mind, and conscience is 
reckoned to be only an evolution from experience, ever changing 
with the onward movement of the process. The old paths in 
which the fathers walked have been largely forsaken. A new 
way is sought, marked out by the latest speculations of scientific 
and literary thinkers — a way that winds its course among the 
facts of nature, and evermore proceeds on the dead level of 
natural law. On this way no place is found for the old religion, 
with its creating God, its providential Governor, and with its 
miracles both of knowledge and life. It is a way which begins in 
nature, runs its course through nature, and ends at the boundary 
line of nature. Whatever life appears along this way is, in its 
origin, its purposes and its destination, simply natural. Beyond 
the region of the seen, whatever may be, is not a subject of 
query but of doubt. 

The skepticism of supernatural reality is both daring and 
extensive. It is present among all grades and conditions of 
human life; in journals of divers types of thought and books of 
almost every kind. The pride of the age seems to be its doubt; 
its boasted wisdom, skeptical assertions ; its highest knowledge, 
ignorance. The agnosticism of the day is the plausible mode of 
explanation by which the unseen and supernatural are easily 
dismissed from recognition. It describes not so much a school 
of thought as a habit of mind. Agnosticism knows one universe 



188 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

only — the universe of phenomenal reality. The seen, the tangible, 
is the world of positive knowledge. Physical sense is the prime 
source of all our certain information. Behind the realm in which 
the senses act are the forces of the unseen, intangible universe, 
which in their real nature are forever unknown and unknowable. 
With these the people of this world have nothing to do, and in 
them they find no deep and lasting interest. Men must concern 
themselves only about the appearance of things themselves. 
Causes can have no significance, further than that they are the 
background of this phenomenal universe in which we live and 
move and have our being. Existence behind the world we touch 
and see is not denied; on the contrary, it is strongly affirmed, 
but with the affirmation once for all dismissed as without bearing 
either on our present welfare or future good. Supernatural be- 
ing, a personal God whose nature is ever active and unchangeable 
love, if such exists, is beyond the range of human power to know. 
Phenomena and their ways of working alone are matters of 
positive understanding. The realm of spiritual being, with all 
its momentous facts, is excluded from contemplation, and is 
classed among the things about which there must be everlasting 
doubt. 

In its cruder grades agnosticism assumes the form of 
secularism. These two systems, in reality, are the same — the 
latter being the practical theory of human life, the former its 
speculative phase. Secularism confines attention to the study of 
nature and ignores religion. Another has truly said : "It is a 
study of life and its duties founded exclusively on a study of 
natural laws. With regard to the origin of these, it commits 
itself to no hypothesis. They are accepted simply as facts. No 
question is raised as to whether there is a future life. The 
secularist is not called upon to be either a theist or an atheist." 

This non-religious system lays down the principle that prece- 
dence should be given to the duties of this life over those that 
pertain to another, on the simple ground that the duties which 
pertain to this life are known to us, while those which pertain 
to another life are, at best, only matters of conjecture. The 
gospel it preaches is summed up in the maxim, "Be worldly 



The Greatest Need 189 

minded; think much of this life, and as little as possible of the 
next." Secularism knows no providence but science, and affirms 
that it will go well with us simply as we understand and learn to 
apply physical laws. Morality, not religion, is the proper busi- 
ness of life. In the idea of the general good of the greatest 
number we have a rule of action independent of God, immortality 
and revelation. In the practice of human duties, in the seeking 
of ends compressed within the scope of human life, we have 
sufficient incitement and sufficient reward. According to Pro- 
fessor Clifford, an avowed agnostic: "Human society is the 
highest of all organisms ; sociology the only foundation of society, 
and this present life the only moral basis of human action." 

This summarized statement well expresses the genius of that 
habit of mind which in our day is so widely popular, and views 
man in his ways as altogther circumscribed by the boundary line 
of phenomenal facts. Secularism, in its practical force, is 
atheistic, although it neither affirms nor denies spiritual reality. 
It only passes by religion with its superior truths with utter in- 
difference, and allows for man no higher communion than inter- 
course with his own kind, and invites him to no loftier destiny 
than a world of fleeting appearances can show. It views man 
merely as a natural organism, capable of variable states of con- 
sciousness, which has arisen through the operation of physical 
law, and by the same law returns whence it came. It recognizes 
man simply to be a creature of nature whose highest good is 
found, not in living, personal fellowship with a loving God, but 
in those rules of prudence and utility which are drawn from re- 
peated past experiences. In its bearings it is thoroughly natural- 
istic, and in the words of Paul it may fitly be described as the 
one who does not like to retain a knowledge of God, and who 
changing the truth of God into a lie, worships and serves the 
creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forevermore. 

And now, my young friends, this is the world into which 
you are going, a world whose philosophy is agnosticism and 
whose practical spirit is secularism. In the face of such indif- 
ference to heavenly and spiritual things, nay, I will say, before 
such a repudiation of a living, personal God in whom we live 



190 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

and move and have our being, of the revelation of His glory in 
the face of Jesus Christ, and of the divine origin and destiny of 
man, and of his eternal redemption by the Cross of Calvary from 
the power and guilt of sin — what is it that you will most need to 
live a true life, a good life, a glorious successful life, and have it 
to say at the end of your career, "I have overcome the world, I 
have won the fight, henceforth there is for me a crown of glory." 

What is your greatest need? I answer, Christian faith. I 
take this to be a good reply for three reasons : First, Christian 
faith gives you a true and certain knowledge of spiritual realities ; 
second, it gives you irresistible power ; third, it imparts the most 
animating inspiration. 

Faith is a word of varied meaning. For one thing, it sig- 
nifies assent to the truth of doctrine. This is intellectual belief 
— that conviction of mind which has its source in a given 
process of thought. For another thing, it means the spontaneous 
assent to the first principles of knowledge, or what is commonly 
known as axiomatic truth, or the ready conviction of invisible 
reality, such as the scientist is frank to acknowledge. This is 
the persuasion of rational insight, that kind of mental conviction 
which is best known as faith of reason. These senses refer us 
only to an exercise either of intellectual logic or of intuition. 

But there is a broader deeper meaning for this familiar 
word. It has more than a dialectic and intuitive significance. In 
its whole scope, it embraces all the powers of the human soul, 
knowing, feeling and willing. Hence, it expresses an act, not 
of awakened mind, or an affected sensibility, or isolated will, but 
of the human soul in the entirety of its being. This act is 
Christian faith. It is Christian faith for the simple reason that 
the object offered the soul of man for acceptance and appropria- 
tion is Jesus Christ, given of God for the recovery of the lost 
and ruined world. To trust Him, to yield itself to Him, to 
appropriate Him, to rest in Him for this life and the life to come, 
this is the soul believing, this is Christian faith. And this is the 
faith which can give you a true and certain knowledge of super- 
natural reality. 

In the history of the human race there stands forth a most 



The Greatest Need 191 

remarkable Person. He surpasses in every noble and excellent 
way all members of Adam's posterity. He is clearly distinguish- 
able from those that preceded Him, as well as those who have 
come after Him, in the purity of His life, in the sublimity of 
His character, in the grandeur of His bearing, in the amazing 
triumph of His achievement. He wrought for Himself the 
greatest personal history. He gave to the world a new religion, 
the simplest in its form, the highest in its reach, and the grandest 
in its teaching of any which has ever been extant among men. 
It is a peculiar religion, peculiar in that He is the source and 
climax, in that He is the life and power, and in that He com- 
prehends in the truth of Himself all that it is and everything it 
is possible for it to be. And this remarkable person is Jesus of 
Nazareth — remarkable not because He was a pure good soul, a 
perfect man, but pre-eminently remarkable because His person 
is "God manifest in the flesh." He is a new personality, the 
great supernatural reality of the ages, looming up before the 
gaze of men as the cleanest, divinest revelation of the eternal 
God. At the same time He stands before the world, its Recon- 
ciler, its Redeemer, declaring Himself mighty to save, and 
inviting the weary and heavy laden to come unto Him that they 
may have rest for their souls. 

This Person, so exceptional in His life and deeds, men doubt 
to be supernatural. At most, they see in Him only the sage, 
the man superior to all others, but not the eternal Word made 
flesh whose glory we behold "as the glory of the only begotten of 
the Father, full of grace and truth." This skepticism runs back 
through eighteen centuries. It is not a modern invention. It 
is quite ancient in its origin. The Christian mind in dealing 
with it has employed evidences of various kinds to remove this 
doubt which is so radical and disastrous. Logic has been en- 
listed in the good cause. Powerful arguments have been framed 
to show that on no other ground than that of supernatural fact 
could a reasonable and satisfactory account be given of the 
historic Nazarene and His wonderful religion. 

These arguments possess high value, and hold a place of large 
importance in the apologetic field; but they are proofs which, in 



192 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

their distinctive forms, are temporary, for they are convictions in 
thought and not evidences of a practical experience based on a 
living faith of the soul. In the time of Jesus there were skeptics. 
These saw His person, heard His teaching, witnessed His 
miracles, but still they remained agnostics. Some knew Him to 
be what He is, the Son of God in the likeness of men, but these 
were they who believed on Him with all their soul. On one 
occasion Jesus asked His disciples : "Who do men say that I, 
the Son of man, am?" To the natural eye He was the Son of man. 
This was the person whom men saw, and touched with their 
hands. And so the answer was : "Some say thou art John the 
Baptist ; some, Elias ; and others Jeremiah, or one of the 
prophets." In each case, you perceive, the thought is only of an 
inspired man. No reach is made beyond the apprehension of the 
senses. Then Jesus turns to His disciples and inquires: "But 
who say ye that I am?" And Simon Peter answers, "Thou art 
the Christ, the Son of the living God." Peter beheld, in the 
One who was before him, more than a prophet, more than a Son 
of man. He saw the Christ, the Son of the living God. His 
conviction was no conjecture, but profound certainty. He re- 
plied with both ready and positive speech. His confession was 
the confession of Christian faith. In consequence of this, Jesus 
replies : "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar Jona, for flesh and blood 
have not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.'' 
This is the revelation which one gets through the faith of the soul. 
At another time Jesus was speaking in the presence of the 
Pharisees and said: "I am the good shepherd, and know my 
sheep, and am known of mine." Here is indicated reciprocal 
knowledge. He knows His sheep and His sheep know Him. 
They know Him in His real character and true nature as the 
good shepherd who has come down from heaven to seek and to 
save the lost. They know His voice as the voice of the only 
begotten Son of God, and they follow Him. The voice of the 
stranger who doubts and denies the Gospel as the gracious reve- 
lation of God, they do not follow, for they know not the voice 
of strangers. And this assurance which God's people have in 
every age is not the assurance of reason, but the humble trust of 



The Greatest Need 193 

the heart, which opens the way to the apprehension of who Christ 
is, the great supernatural reality of the world's history ; of what 
He is to the human soul perishing in sin, its Redeemer; and 
whose voice it is that calls to the sons of men, "follow me" — the 
voice of that Shepherd and Bishop of souls who was conceived 
by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary. 

And this assurance of Christian faith is the evidence of 
which you will stand in need. In the world whither you are 
going, bold, persistent doubt concerning Jesus of Nazareth and 
His Gospel as the way, the truth and the life will confront you. 
Mere argument, however logical, will not put it down effectually 
and cause you to rest in immovable conviction of the supernatural 
truth of the Man of Calvary. Something more is necessary, 
namely, that overpowering evidence of reality which comes only 
by actual contact of the human soul with Jesus Christ, and by 
an experience possible in no other way save through faith which 
rests on Him alone for salvation. 

Intellectual evidence is variable, changing with the change- 
able modes of skeptical assault. Now it is Deism, then Panthe- 
ism; now Rationalism, then Agnosticism. But whatever the 
shape of doubt and whatever the age, whatever it be in the third 
or the nineteenth century, the evidence of Christian faith is 
always unanswerable, furnishing a proof to the individual soul 
for the Gospel of Christ as a supernatural reality that no skepti- 
cism can gainsay or overthrow it. With this evidence, my friends, 
you can stand firm with believers of every age, before Deism, 
Pantheism, Rationalism or Agnosticism, and say : "I know whom 
I have believed, and know that He is able to keep that which I 
have committed unto Him." Men may puzzle your natural under- 
standing with difficulties of criticism and objections against 
certainty of Gospel truth, but your spiritual apprehension of the 
deep things of God through justifying faith will always be clear 
and grounded in a depth of conviction which will be invincible 
against all doubt. 

My second thought is that Christian faith will give you 
power, irresistible power. 

The skeptical world with which you will come in contact 



194 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

is by no means small and weak. It has great strength. It is a 
mighty power. The wisdom it exercises is, with the natural 
man, indeed forceful and all-sufficient, and its knowledge entirely 
conclusive. This world, so well furnished with weapons of 
skeptical warfare, will seek to take you captive. In order to 
make a successful defense, and hold fast to the truth of things 
seen and eternal, those spiritual realities which the eye does 
not see nor the ear hear, a power beyond the natural will be 
essential. 

Intellectual might, gained by discipline and culture, has high 
value, and will serve you well in the struggle of this life ; but 
intellectual might alone cannot avail against a world of disbelief 
in God and heavenly things. You will need power more than 
natural energy can afford, a power which comes from the super- 
natural only, the power which Christian faith bestows. It is 
spiritual might that you must have, if you would be a true hero, 
and win a kingdom for your crown. Such power belongs to 
justifying faith. This truth is forcibly exhibited in many familiar 
Scripture sayings : "Ask, and ye shall receive ; seek, and ye shall 
find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." "Say to this 
mountain, Be thou plucked up and cast into the sea, and it shall 
obey you." "Whatsoever ye ask the Father in my name, that 
He will do." Here is the plain recognition of the exercise of 
power, a mighty, irresistible power, which has at command a 
whole universe of spiritual thought. 

The same fact finds Biblical illustration in individual in- 
stances. According to Scripture, the world of mankind had gone 
off into most shameful wickedness and presumptuous unbelief. 
The patience of God had been wearied to its limit, and the day of 
vengeance was at hand. One man alone stood forth from the 
millions of the debased and infidel of earth, unspotted and 
righteous before his Maker. Through a space of one hundred 
and twenty years he warned his fellowmen of the coming doom. 
They only scoffed at his preaching and ridiculed his entreaty. 
But in the presence of a world of doubt and most daring unbelief, 
he kept his trust in God and showed himself to be the only man 
of that awful age. He proved himself to be the mightiest man of 



The Greatest Need 195 

his time, a man of renown. "By faith, Noah, being warned of 
God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark 
to the saving of his house; by which he condemned the world, 
and become heir to the righteousness which is by faith." 

Thirty-seven hundered years ago a native of Chaldea settled 
in the land of Canaan. He was the friend of God. The divine 
promise made to him was of astonishing proportions and far- 
reaching effect. In the course of time as a pledge of its fulfill- 
ment there was born in his old age, a son. By and by the order 
came to him: "Take thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou 
lovest, and get thee to the land of Moriah, and there offer him 
for a burnt offering." Isaac was the divinely promised heir, the 
hope of his father's old age, the light and joy of his heart. And 
yet without delay the patriarch arose, and hastened to the place 
of which God had told him, and there he built an altar and laid the 
wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, 
and then far above the stir and bustle of a noisy world, amid the 
stillness of the mountain top, he stretched forth his hand and 
took the knife to slay his son. It was enough. Faith rose grandly 
and triumphantly above all the hosts of doubt, and invested this 
man with a power altogther irresistible before astounding diffi- 
culties, nay, in the very face of impossibility itself. "By faith 
Abraham offered up Isaac ; and he that had received the promises 
offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, In 
Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting that God was able to 
raise him up from the dead ; from whence also he received him in 
a figure." Justifying faith in its divine power has lifted Abra- 
ham far above the men of this world, has immortalized him as 
the father of all who believe, and crowned him with a glory which 
is the admiration of every age. 

In the Median kingdom there once lived a young Hebrew. 
He was prime minister of the Chaldean court. He was a man of 
excellent spirit. Though far from his native land, a captive, 
still he was faithful to the religion of his fathers, and always 
feared and trusted God. He was a deeply pious soul, and amid 
the heathen infidelity of Babylon, kept fresh in his heart the 
statutes of the Lord. 



196 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

But the day of trial came. The princes and governors of 
Darius looked with bitterest envy on the first president of the 
realm. They denied his God, hated his religion, despised the 
man. They set their wits to work to find how to humiliate him 
before the empire, to cover him with disgrace, and even to destroy 
his life. They sought occasion in his administration, but none 
was discernable because he was faithful, neither was there to be 
found in him any error or fault. At last they said, "We shall not 
find any occasion against this man except we find it against his re- 
ligion." Shortly afterward the expedient is devised in the 
shape of a royal statute that, "Whosoever shall ask a petition of 
any god or man for thirty days save of thee, O King, he shall 
be cast into the den of lions." The royal decree is made accord- 
ingly. But Daniel lived on as before. "He went into his house, 
and his windows being open in his chambers toward Jerusalem, 
he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and 
gave thanks to his God, as he did aforetime." He made no extra 
show, nor with defiant air observed his usual devotion. Neither 
was he disturbed by fear. He calmly trusted that Divine Being 
who was his shield and exceeding great reward, and went on in 
a quiet way maintaining unswerving faithfulness to Israel's God. 
His enemies are jubilant. At last they have found against him 
sure accusation. The command is given and Daniel is cast into 
the den of lions. But mark the man. He is so much at ease. 
He does not tremble, nor start back in fright, nor show a pallid 
countenance. He walks with firm step and easy tread, and with 
bright face toward the inmost, just as he was wont to go into 
his own house three times a day. The opening of the den is 
closed and sealed, and Daniel lies down among the wild beasts 
in calm repose and quiet sleep. When the morning comes, he 
awakes in strength, and at the call of his king comes forth unhurt, 
to testify that before his God he was innocent and that to his 
royal master he had done no harm. Then comes the climax of 
victory, when the great monarch publishes to all people and 
nations and languages of the earth the most notable decree, that 
"in every dominion of my kingdom men tremble and fear before 
the God of Daniel; for He is the living God and steadfast for- 



The Greatest Need 197 

ever, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. He 
delivereth and rescueth, and He worketh signs and wonders in 
heaven and in earth, who hath delivered Daniel from the power 
of the lions." 

Darius, a vain man, puffed up with ambitious pride, issuing 
such a decree which recognizes the majesty, the supremacy of 
the God of heaven, and extols Him as universal and eternal king, 
and magnifies His providential care over those who humbly put 
their trust in Him — all this is astonishing, and shows the faith of 
Daniel to be a power which is more than a match for the intrigues 
and machinations of his enemy, stronger than the mouths of 
fierce lions, and irresistible in its influence to extort from the 
proudest monarch of the world a confession of the supreme 
majesty and omnipotent rulership of the God of Israel. 

"But time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, 
and of Samson, and of Jepthah, of David also, and Samuel and 
the prophets; who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought 
righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 
quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, 
out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, and 
turned to flight the armies of the aliens." 

This is the mighty, irresistible power which you, my friends, 
will need. The power which will make you strong to withstand 
the scoffs of vulgar infidelity, the objections of a well-trained 
skepticism, and the doubts of a cultured rationalism. The power 
which will fit you to practice a hearty self-denial, to make with 
submissive willingness the most painful, costly sacrifice for the 
sake of Him who died for you, and to rest with unshaken firm- 
ness on the precious promises of God. It is the power which 
will gain for you the spirit of godly excellence, which will keep 
you steadfast in a good and noble life, make you mightier than 
all the foes combined, and achieve for you a victory that will 
declare the glory of God to earth's remotest bounds. And this 
power, the humble trust of patriarchs, prophets, and apostles in 
the all-sufficient God, is the irresistible power of Christian faith. 

My last reflection is that Christian faith will afford you the 
most animating inspiration. 



198 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

Human life would be a dull reality if there were in it nothing 
to inspire. It would be cheerless, hopeless, without expectation of 
better things to come. The pessimistic view of this world and 
the future is void of anything to awaken hearty interest, beget 
a buoyant spirit and prompt a warm enthusiasm. Man, hence, 
turns from such a blank theory of existence and of living, and 
looks for what will give him a lively hope and inspiration. For 
this he is athirst — a quickening motive power by which his 
energies may be refreshed and moved to earnest action. Without 
it life is mere drudgery and grind. Man ever searches for some- 
thing to move and thrill his powers. Aside from it he is never 
satisfied. This something is truth. Wherever it is found, there 
is inspiration. And the greater the presentation of its fullness, 
the intenser is the degree of its affection. Truth always is in- 
spiring. This is why the study of nature constantly excites the 
higher powers of men. Nature is an expression, an embodiment 
of the true. It is a great book of verity. When, therefore, the 
human mind investigates the natural world, it is enlivened by an 
interest most serene, and awakes anew into a fresh, buoyant life. 
The treasure which it finds is not an empty form, but a truth of 
divinest mould, expressed in the fashion of material mode — the 
truth in the beautiful, the truth in the good. 

Consequently, the sacred poet, while in his study of a uni- 
verse, he sees reflected the most perfect of all beings, is caught 
by the spirit of enraptured enthusiasm, and sings, "The heavens 
declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handi- 
work. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night 
showeth knowledge." 

An English poet has said, "The proper study of mankind 
is man." Quite true ; but we must add, this man is neither Adam, 
Plato, nor Shakespeare, but the man Christ Jesus. He is a 
peculiar person. While, on the one hand, He is the representa- 
tive of true humanity, He is, at the same time, on the other hand, 
the image of the invisible God. In Him is centered, consequently, 
the truth of human nature and the divine. To the soul of man 
Jesus Christ is an object of absorbing interest. His moral bear- 
ing is of the loftiest; His character, the most perfect; His life the 



The Greatest Need 199 

divinest possible in the human flesh. In Him all virtues find the 
completest realization. His devotion to principle is without a 
parallel. His fidelity to the stupendous work given Him to do 
is unequalled. His ardor in rescuing a perishing world is match- 
less. And the depth of His love for the sinful and distressed 
is most amazing. Taken altogether, He stands amid the gen- 
erations of men the most wonderful person, with the grandest 
life, the sublimest work, the most triumphant achievement. No 
one of Adam's race is comparable with Him. He attracts uni- 
versal attention. He absorbs the deepest thought of the human 
mind. Men never tire of making mention of Him. They write 
volumes concerning Him; they preach Him; they travel oceans 
to proclaim Him; they brave the wild fury of a godless world 
to publish Him to the miserable and lost ; they cut off the right 
hand, they pluck out an eye, they die for Him. He draws and 
captivates and excites and thrills the human soul as no other being 
ever has or ever can. To hear Him speak is to hear the sweetest, 
most persuasive voice; to see Him is to look on the purest, the 
loveliest one possible to be found. To come in contact with Him 
is to be healed, to be quickened from the dead, to become a new 
creature, having new thoughts, new feelings, and a new com- 
munion which incites the human soul to the noblest, grandest 
living. His presence is inspiration itself. And this He is be- 
cause He is the sum of all truth — the truth in nature, the truth 
in man, the truth in God. Jesus Christ is Himself the revelation 
and perfect embodiment of all truth — truth not for a bodily organ- 
ism only, with its wants, not for an intellectual understanding 
with its acquired knowledge, not for aesthetic taste with its 
sentiments of perfect beauty, but, pre-eminently, for the human 
soul with its unquenchable desires and its Godward aspirations. 
In Him the spirit of man sees the righteousness of the divine 
nature, the wisdom of the all-wise God, the infinite compassion 
and measureless sympathy, the victorious mercy of Him who "so 
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoso- 
ever believeth in Him might not perish but have everlasting 
life." 

In Jesus Christ man sees his Elder Brother, who has faced 



200 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

for him the powers of sin, faced them in the terrors of the wilder- 
ness, faced them in the midnight hour in Gethsemane, faced them 
in Herod's court and Pilate's hall, faced them on Mount Calvary, 
and always proved Himself their overmatch; and, lastly, He 
faced them in the kingdom of death, and there He 
"spoiled principalities and powers and led captivity captive." 
And today He lives at God's right hand, resplendent in glory 
and invested with all power in heaven and on earth, the one 
Mediator between God and man, able to lift out of the depths 
of woe and exalt to a place of peace and joy, every son and 
daughter of Adam. 

My young friends : the work which you will have to do 
between this and your eternity, the struggle in which you must 
engage, and the life you ought to live, demand the most animating 
inspiration. Inspiration you must have, an inspiration that will 
invigorate your energies, enliven your powers, and excite your 
soul to high aims and endow it with a courage which makes the 
great moral and spiritual heroes of the world. Whence can you 
get such inspiration ? It were vain to seek it in the best acquaint- 
ance with nature and its laws. It were idle to look for it in the 
philosophies of the human mind, or in the life and deeds of the 
wisest sage. It is but a miserable delusion to seek it anywhere 
save in the Great Nazarene. 

And here, you must know, this all-quickening, all-powerful 
inspiration for the human soul can never be gotten by any sort 
of intellectual exercise or knowledge. For He is to be known 
most intimately, most deeply, in the truth of His being, what He 
is for you, power, life, salvation and destiny, by no process of 
reflection, but by the humble trust of the soul which gives to Him 
everything and says, "I am Thine and Thou art mine." 

This is the inspiration which comes to the soul through 
Christian faith, the inspiration which can animate most intensely 
your highest powers and make your life to shine with a heavenly 
light. 

Do you want an illustration ? A young man is going from 
Jerusalem to Damascus. A dazzling light flashes about him, and 
he has a heavenly vision, and a voice says, "Saul, Saul, why 



The Greatest Need 201 

persecutest thou me?" The blinded man asks, "Who art thou, 
Lord?" The answer comes, "I am Jesus of Nazareth." Enough. 
By and by the fierce persecutor believes with all his soul on the 
Lord Jesus Christ. And then a new career opens up before 
him. The most illustrious human life begins. Paul, the Apostle, 
starts out with the Gospel of the crucified and risen Lord. He 
hastens to Antioch filled with zeal, enthusiastic to preach the 
Cross. Thence he goes forth to the cities of Asia Minor; he 
passes on to Ephesus, to Corinth, to other cities, and lifts up the 
standard of the Gospel before the eyes of vain and pleasure- 
loving worshippers of heathen gods. On he goes, incited by an 
ardor that moves the very depths of his soul, thrilled by inspira- 
tion to undertake the revolution of heathendom, and, single- 
handed, to win a prodigal world back to God; on he goes, until 
one day he stands on Mars Hill, amid the greatness and glory of 
ancient culture and art, in the presence of the wisdom and power 
of the world, and there alone, undismayed, without a tremor of 
fear; unabashed, beholding with the eyes of faith One more 
beautiful than Apollo, One mightier than Jove, and One trans- 
cendent in the glory of love, infinitely beyond the whole race of 
immortals, the Apostle Paul, with an eloquence unsurpassed, and 
courage undaunted, preaches Jesus and the resurrection. This 
was true heroism. Here was inspiration, the deepest and most 
powerful; inspiration which nerved the energies of this remark- 
able man for the most wonderful career, and which pressed him 
forward through dangers on land and sea, and into a deadly 
struggle with all the powers of moral night, and made his life 
the greatest of the great. 

It was the inspiration of Christian faith — such an inspira- 
tion as nothing earthly ever could create — the inspiration which 
has its source in that simple trust of the soul which takes Jesus of 
Nazareth for all He is, the life and hope of lost and guilty man. 
If in all your living you are animated by this inspiration, it will 
always be well with you, and at the end of your career you can 
chant in peaceful voice and jubilant strain your morning song. 



IV 
LECTURES 



IV 
LECTURES 



MARTIN LUTHEK 

I STAND here this evening to tell you about a man who lived 
three hundred and fifty years ago. History mentions a host 
of men who, in former days, shaped the cause of human ends. 
Some were philosophers who laid the foundations of profound 
intellectual systems. Some were poets who inspired nations 
with their patriotic songs. Others were mighty warriors who 
led their invincible legions to victory and fame, and thus changed 
the currents of the world's affairs. 

But the man of whom I wish to speak was not simply a 
philosopher, nor a poet, nor a warrior. He was only a German 
monk. The story of his life is plain and simple. He was no 
common character. He was one of heaven's noblemen, an honest 
soul who loved to do the right. Some have styled him a rough 
man, uncouth in words and severe in manner. In a measure 
very true. He was not an angel, nor always select in his mode 
of speech, nor perfect. He belonged to the family of mankind. 
While his nature was not wholly tempered by the mildness 
of the lamb, nevertheless it was quickened by the boldness of the 
lion. He was divinely chosen to act a great part in the drama 
of religious history. He was moulded to be the agent of a 
mighty revolution, whose effects should go down to the latest 
day. He came to the front in a strange and gloomy age. The 
hearts of the people were cast down; conscience was in bonds; 
the wildest superstitions were common merchandise; and the 
Church, which went forth originally from Jerusalem as the 



206 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

heavenly bride, was wasting away in the prison house of the 
Vatican. One can scarcely imagine that the pure and holy Gospel 
of the humble Nazarene could ever be so perverted as to give 
rise to the monstrous abuse of the Romish hierarchy. It is hard 
to conceive that such a simple religion might be distorted so as 
to present before the world the spectacle of an infallible papacy. 
It seems altogether improbable that the beautiful Cross would, 
along with the ages, be buried and hidden from sight by the false- 
hoods and traditions of men. 

And yet all this had come to pass, not suddenly, it is true, 
but gradually and surely. Like the Arctic night, whose shadows 
day by day grow darker, until the sun has sunk out of sight 
leaving all in gloom, so the papal night drew on, age by age, 
until, at the opening of the sixteenth century, the densest dark- 
ness covered the nations. 

What arts and trickery must have been set to play! What 
schemes and shameless pride and ambition must have spurred 
on the keepers of the Christian faith to conjure up such a spiritual 
despotism as the empire of modern Rome ! How the right must 
have been violently thrust aside, and the wrong bolstered up! 
How the truth must have been scorned and error fondled ! How 
the glories of Mount Zion must have been obscured! How the 
darkness of Moloch must have driven back the new-born 
day before the dark ages had fairly spread their pall over 
Christendom ! 

To describe these particulars at length would be beyond my 
purpose. It is sufficient to say that the papacy took its rise in 
the earlier Christian centuries, and advanced step by step to the 
consummation witnessed in medieval times. At the close of the 
fifteenth century the condition of the Gospel lands was indeed 
deplorable. On the banks of the Tiber sat a man in great temporal 
dignity. His palace was filled with the choicest treasures. His 
sanctuary was the most costly cathedral where the skill of 
Michael Angelo immortalized itself. His courtiers were crafty 
cardinals and avaricious bishops. His ministers were the mul- 
titude of idle monks and ignorant priests who harassed the 
people in almost every quarter of Europe. His subjects were 



Martin Lather 207 

the millions of hardy men and noble women, who were vigorously- 
forced to endure the worst of ignorance and oppression, while 
they longed to see the dawn of a brighter day. This man was 
the so-called vicar of God, the Pope. He proclaimed himself 
the king of kings before whom every knee must bow. He de- 
manded alike the homage of emperors and lords, of masters and 
their slaves, of the wise and the foolish, the learned and the 
ignorant, the rich and the poor. He announced himself to all 
peoples as the shepherd whose business it is to lead the sheep of 
God into green pastures and beside the still waters — but, some- 
how, he always managed to leave them in a dry and thirsty 
land. He kept a strict watch over the great light of the world, 
and hid it securely from the gaze of men, so that not a single 
ray might fall on the faithful. He smiled on iniquity, he laughed 
at crime, and was happiest in sin. The voices of complaint he 
instantly smothered; the cry of the desolate and the wail of the 
suffering he instantly hushed. The prayers of the good he 
ridiculed, and the sermons of the pious he condemned. He gloried 
alone in himself, and ever as he walked in his palace he would 
mutter, "Is not this Holy Rome which I have built by the might 
of my power and for the honor of my majesty?" He heeded 
neither the call for reform nor the words of respectful advice. 
He heeded no pleadings for relief, and in answer to the plain, 
unvarnished Word of God, he had but one argument — death. 
He was monarch of all he surveyed. He ruled in the councils 
of nations ; set kings one against the other; marshalled the legions 
of Europe for the bloody field ; broke treaties ; dissolved com- 
pacts; robbed the widow and the orphan; made faggots, planted 
stakes, pinioned the helpless and suffering and laid them bound 
on the fatal pile; he struck the fire from the flint, lighted the 
torch, burned the heretic and reddened his hands in the blood 
of the innocent. 

Such was the man who sat on the banks of the Tiber, and 
at the beginning of the sixteenth century ruled the world. 

Men feared to utter their protest against the tyranny of 
this despot. For they remembered how aforetime he handled 
those who dared to dispute his claims and ventured to champion 



208 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

the cause of truth. They thought of the Bohemian, John Huss, 
and called to mind the history of the Lollards. 

But presently one appeared who openly thundered against 
the corruption of the times, and grappled with the strong man 
of the Vatican in the fearful contest for the right and the welfare 
of the world. And this man was the monk of Erfurt. 

Permit me to give a brief sketch of his life, the work he did 
and its effect. The subject of my story was born in 1483 in 
the town of Eisleben, Germany. His parents were honorable 
folks in the medium walk of life. At an early age they sent 
their son to the Latin school of Mansfield, and afterwards placed 
him at Eisenach. 

Financial misfortunes having befallen the family, the father 
was hard pressed to keep his boy at school. Like many others, 
the lad was presently forced to seek a livelihood for himself if 
he would continue his collegiate course. The hours of recreation, 
instead of being used in frolic, were spent in seeking bread at 
the houses of the wealthy. On a cold, stormy night, while stand- 
ing at the door of one of the better families of the town and 
singing his usual song, the door was drawn ajar, and a kind 
voice bade him come in. He unexpectedly found himself in the 
midst of a lovely Christian household. His manners so favorably 
impressed husband and wife that they resolved to give him a 
home at their fireside while he attended school. 

He closed his eyes that night with a light and joyous heart. 
There was no more going from door to door asking alms. The 
wintry nights would find him no longer standing in the open air 
shivering, and singing for a morsel to quiet the cravings of 
hunger. He had found a pleasant, delightful home, where all 
was cheer and comfort and good will. 

The years passed and the miner's son had grown to be a 
young man. He now began his studies in the University of 
Erfurt, and was also trying to settle in his mind which of the 
professions should be his life work. His father had always 
wished his son to fit himself for the law rather than the office of 
the priesthood, and in his conversations around the hearthstone 
ever insisted that he must be a lawyer. Owing to the religious de- 



Martin Luther 209 

generacy of the day and the profligate manner of the clergy, the 
stern father, though a good man, had an intense dislike for the 
priestly order, and positively commanded his promising boy to 
become a jurist instead of a companion of ecclesiastical fools. 

Providential circumstances, however, ordered otherwise, and 
guided the young doctor of philosophy to a career other than that 
chosen for him while yet a minstrel on the streets of Eisenach. 
He was naturally studious and of a religious turn. He was 
sensible of complete dependence upon God, and every day began 
his work with prayer. He passed no time in idle play, but spent 
his leisure hours among the books of the University. He thirsted 
for knowledge. He was an incessant reader and spent much 
time in the University library. "One day," as another has said, 
"he opens many books in the library, one after another, to learn 
their author's names. One volume especially attracts his atten- 
tion. He has never until this hour seen its like. He reads the 
title ; it is the Bible — a rare book, almost unknown in those times. 
His interest is greatly excited; he is filled with astonishment at 
finding other matters than those fragments of the Gospels and 
Epistles that the Church has selected to be read to the people 
during public worship every Sunday throughout the year. Until 
this day he imagined that they composed the whole Word of 
God. And now he sees so many verses, so many chapters, so 
many books of which he had no idea. His heart beats as he 
holds the divinely inspired volume in his hands. With eagerness 
and indescribable emotion he turns over these leaves from God. 
The first page on which he fixes his attention narrates the 
story of Hannah and the young Samuel. He reads, and his 
soul can hardly contain the joy it feels. 

"This child, whom his parents lend to the Lord as long as 
he liveth ; the song of Hannah, in which she declares that Jehovah 
raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the beggar from 
the dung hill, to set them among princes; this child who grew 
up in the temple in the presence of the Lord ; those sacrificers, 
the sons of Eli, who are wicked men, who live in debauchery 
and make God's people to transgress — all this history excites 
feeling till then unknown. 'Oh, that God would give me such 



210 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

a book for myself !' is the earnest wish which comes from the 
depth of his heart." 

The miner's son had found the light in which lay the Refor- 
mation of more than three centuries ago. Deep convictions took 
hold of his soul, and would not down even at the bidding of 
Aristotle and his disciples. The young student's heart was 
troubled and he sighed for that rest which cometh neither through 
the inventions of man, nor by the wisdom of the world. In the 
summer of 1505, during the regular University vacation, he 
visited the scenes of his childhood and passed some days in the 
society of his parents. Doubtless he then laid before his father 
the dimly defined purpose to which he had been brought by the 
discovery of the Divine Word, and asked parental authority for 
its execution. His father, however, who wished him to shine 
on the theatre of the world, was altogether unwilling to give up 
the proud hopes he had cherished for his son. 

Already, although only in his twentieth year, he was a teacher 
in one of the most celebrated schools, and was speedily rising to a 
place of distinction. Little, therefore, could the father entertain 
the thought of his son linking himself with the brotherhood, only 
slightly esteemed and notoriously corrupt. But "there is a 
divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will." 

The young doctor left his father's house to return to his 
University duties. A violent storm overtakes him on the way. 
The lightning flashes about him ; a bolt falls at his feet. Instantly 
he casts himself on the ground. Filled with the anguish and 
terror of death, he makes a vow that, if God delivers him from 
this danger, he will abandon the world and devote himself en- 
tirely to God. The thoughts which formerly disturbed his quiet 
came back with increased power. "What if I should then have 
died, and appeared before the great Judge with my impure heart !" 
he tremblingly mused. His ardent thirst for knowledge was 
changed into eager search for holiness. 

But whither shall he go for this choicest treasure? Surely 
not to the University. He had often heard of another school 
where, it was reported, was to be found the power to change 
the heart and make man perfect. Thither he will direct his steps. 



Martin Luther 211 

He is back again in Erfurt. His mind is finally decided. One 
evening he calls his friends to a cheerful entertainment. It is 
the farewell of the miner's son to the world. Hereafter, instead 
of the lively companions of his pleasures and his studies, he will 
have monks ; instead of this gay and witty talk, the silence of the 
cloister ; for these merry songs, the solemn strains of the sombre 
chapel. The sound of cheerful music has died away into the 
stillness of the night. The jolly companions are gone, The 
miner's son is alone. Presently he quits his lodgings, leaves be- 
hind him all his worldly goods, save a heathen epic and several 
comedies. With these in hand, he repairs to the convent of the 
Augustinian Brotherhood. He knocks for admittance. The gate 
opens and closes. The brilliant doctor of philosophy is shut 
in from the associations of long and faithful friends. The 
student singer of Madgeburg is cut off from the society of the 
kind souls who ministered to his needs when in dire distress. 
The miner's son is locked against the anger of a good father 
and the tears of a dearly loved mother. He is dead to the world 
and wears the robe of the cloister. He is a monk. Once within 
the gloomy monastery, he begins to apply himself more strictly 
than ever to his studies, as well as to perform most carefully the 
religious routine of the place. His brother monks, however, were 
not well satisfied with his studious habits. It was not the custom 
there to pour over books, to dive into the deep philosophies of 
the poet, and much less to study the divine Word. They were 
greatly amazed to find this newcomer devoted so entirely to the 
pursuit of learning. The discovery shocked their monkish taste 
and stirred the pious jealousy of their hearts. That this youth 
should spend some hours every day in quest of knowledge and 
mental exercise, was far beyond the tolerance of those holy men. 
Although joyful when this distinguished doctor left the Uni- 
versity to become one of their order, they resolved to humble the 
youthful philosopher and thoroughly convince him that learning 
was a very little thing in the eyes of holy friars. They soon devised 
a plan to put an end to study, and consume the young monk's 
time. They appointed him to the office of porter, to open and 
shut the gates, to wind up the clock, to sweep the church and to 
clean the cells. 



212 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

Still, after the performance of this menial service each day, 
he had some hours left for intellectual work. He secluded 
himself entirely from the society of his brethren, and gave him- 
self exclusively to his beloved pursuits. But they soon found 
out his secret, and coming upon him with scowling faces, tore 
him from his books, exclaiming, "Come, come, it is not by study- 
ing, but by begging bread, corn, eggs, fish, meat and money that 
a monk renders himself useful to the cloister. Away with your 
wallet through the town." 

There was no alternative. Of course, he must take up the 
bag and wander through the streets of Erfurt, stand at the 
doors of former friends, and beg for lazy monks. There was 
bitter humiliation in the task; yet he went through the ordeal 
without a murmur, never regretting that he had taken upon him- 
self such a yoke. Such was the temper of his mind that, having 
decided on a course of action, nothing could swerve him from 
his purpose. The University with which he had been associ- 
ated was not willing that he should be made to do the drudgery 
of a cloister, and hence interposed in his behalf. Through its 
intercession he was released from all menial service. He now 
returned to his studies with renewed zeal, looking through 
fathers, prying into the famous scholastic theologies, critically 
examining the Scriptures, and laying the foundation by a thor- 
ough study of Hebrew and Greek for his future translation of 
the Bible. 

But though he applied himself diligently to silent thought, 
and observed minutely the sacred service of the cloister, the 
troubled conscience which drove him to a hermit's life remained 
unquieted. Every day increased his disasters. The oftener he 
repeated the mechanical prayers of his church, and the more he 
fasted and bewailed his condition, the worse he grew. In after 
years, in speaking of his experience as an ascetic, he said : "While 
I was yet a monk, I no sooner felt assailed by temptation than 
I cried out, T am lost.' Immediately I had recourse to a thous- 
and methods to stifle the cries of my conscience. I went every 
day to confession, but that was no use to me. Then, bowed down 
by sorrow, I tortured myself by the multidude of my thoughts. 



Martin Luther 213 

'Look,' exclaimed I, 'thou art still envious, impatient, passion- 
ate. It profiteth thee nothing, oh wretched man, to have entered 
this cloister.' " 

This terrible anguish of soul went on increasing in poig- 
nancy week after week, causing him at last to wander like a ghost 
through the dismal halls of the cloister. There was rest neither 
day nor night. His brethren knew nothing of the fearful storm 
that was raging in his soul. His confessors everlastingly pointed 
him to the works of law for relief, but this only increased his 
anguish. His fellow monks could not help him, did not under- 
stand his case, nor cared to know. At last his body became 
exhausted under the fearful strain, and he sank down in despair. 

But one day an aged monk, who had found the better way, 
entered his cell, addressed to him a few words of comfort, and 
then led him back to the creed which says, "I believe in the for- 
giveness of sins." By and by the distressed man repeated, "I 
believe in the forgiveness of sins." "Ah !" said the monk, "you 
must believe not only in the forgiveness of Daniel's and Peter's 
sins, for even the devils believe. It is God's command that we 
believe our own sins are forgiven. The testimony of the Holy 
Ghost in thine heart is, 'Thy sins are forgiven thee.' " 

The awful struggle is over. Light gleams into his cheer- 
less soul. A new day has dawned for him, gloriously bright. 
He has found the peace for which he has so long sighed. His 
conscience is still. In a little while he walks forth from his cell 
a wiser, better, happier man. Very true, he still goes to the 
confessional, and takes part in the service of the mass. He is 
still a pious monk. 

Yet a mighty change had taken place, a wondrous reforma- 
tion which one day would manifest its power, that would stir 
the nations. In his soul had been enacted a drama, yea, a revo- 
lution that no friars' walls could confine, and that would shortly 
go forth under the leadership of this Augustinian monk on the 
wide fields of Europe, causing the very earth to tremble under 
its victories, and reaching forth in its happy influences to the 
isles of the sea and the uttermost parts of the globe. 

The scholarly attainments of our young Saxon soon brought 



214 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

him to the favorable notice of one of the noted princes of the 
day, and he was, contrary to his desire, invited to take the chair 
of philosophy in the lately founded University of Wittenberg. 
After much earnest persuasion he was induced to give up the 
secluded life of the convent, come out among his fellows, and 
engage in the noble work of spreading the power of knowledge 
throughout Germany. The fame of his talents soon spread 
far and wide, and many young men from all quarters of his 
nation flocked to the new University to study under the brilliant 
Augustinian monk. The little town of Wittenberg was speed- 
ily growing famous, and soon would be celebrated throughout 
the empire of the Goths, and even in distant countries, as the 
center from which went forth the streams of truth to make glad 
the people of every clime. For the distinguished monk not only 
taught the speculations of philosophy, but more especially dis- 
played the living truths of the Sacred Word, so long concealed 
from men, to the minds of enthusiastic students who heard with 
bated breath the wonderful story of eternal life. 

Affairs in the religious world were almost beginning to ap- 
proach a crisis. The spirit of general intellectual inquiry was 
growing more active. The schools, so long closed, were throwing 
open their doors, and inviting the youth of every section to con- 
gregate within their walls. The mental dullness of the preced- 
ing age was passing away, and learning was fast coming into 
repute. The fountains of knowledge, so long deserted, were 
being frequented by the thirsty of every rank and profession. 
Brighter, healthier faces than had been seen for centuries were 
looking out from the humble dwellings of peasants and the stately 
mansions of the nobles. The signs of the times were indeed 
auspicious. But the darkness which had cursed the people for 
centuries still encompassed the so-called Christian lands. The 
grossest superstitions prevailed among the high and low, among 
bishop and priest, among peasant and nobleman, kings and monks. 

And the catalogue was still incomplete. Another must be 
added, baser than any that had ever paraded before a blinded 
world. The great Church of St. Peter at Rome was sadly in 
need of repairs. The rain and hail had beaten against its walls 



Martin Luther 215 

so many years that its beauty was marred, and the mighty fabric 
might fall into utter ruin. But the treasury of the Vatican was 
empty. The lofty Vicar had squandered the gold of the mil- 
lions in luxury and vain pomp. There was nothing left with 
which to adorn the most celebrated building of Christendom and 
make it surpass the greatest achievement of the past. But the 
ingenuity of the old man on the banks of the Tiber was equal 
to the emergency. The happy thought of indulgences occurred 
to his much perplexed but fertile mind. No sooner did this 
fortunate expedient suggest itself to his eager wits than he calls 
his ever ready agents to his presence, and commissions them to 
traverse the countries of his dominion, and expose for sale the 
precious wares of salvation, which the kindness of the lofty 
monarch of Rome had devised for his miserable subjects. One 
of these willing salesmen without delay turns his face north- 
ward, crosses the Alps, and with loudest demonstration enters 
the Fatherland. He is no sooner there than he mounts the stand 
and expatiates in stentorian tones on the matchless value of 
his blessed wares. The people gather from every quarter; they 
crowd around the greedy vendor of papal grace. As they learn 
the meaning of his presence, and hear him extol the merits of 
his traffic, their hearts are all aglow. With one hand they 
reach forward to receive the precious letter of indulgence, from 
the most holy father, while with the other they drop their scant 
earnings into the consecrated box. 

All went well at first. The new business flourished. The 
needed money poured into the treasury, and St. Peter was happy. 
The busy seller of indulgences was meeting everywhere with 
proud success. His journey through the German towns and 
cities was like the triumphal march of a great hero returning 
from a victorious campaign. He scattered his wares broadcast 
among all classes and scooped for his master the heard-earned 
pittance, and snatched from the widow and the orphan their 
daily bread. With a high hand and a boastful voice he scoured 
the country, and as the hireling of the great shepherd fleeced 
the flock of God. 

But the impudent agent of the Vatican is soon brought to 



216 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

a halt in his career. Amid the noisy jingling of the people's 
money into the papal box, and the vociferous harangues of the 
pompous pretender from Rome, a strong clear voice rings out 
on the air of Germany from the University of Wittenberg. It 
protests against the outrageous sale of indulgences, and in thun- 
dering tones denounces the glaring impudence of the vendor. 
It is the monk of Erfurt who speaks. The trafficker in heav- 
enly goods at first halts, surprised at the sound he hears; but 
soon, recovering himself, he resumed his bellowing in a manner 
that one would have supposed it was a mad ox rushing on the 
people and goring them with his horns. He roared and reared 
and threatened, and boasted how he would presently destroy 
the Augustinian friar. 

But he little knew what sort of mettle he must meet, or 
who it was dared to dispute his boastful speech. The monk 
of Wittenberg was in nowise frightened by the loud noise of 
this ignorant priest. On the festival of All-Saints, he marched 
forth from his study, and nailed on the church door the mem- 
orable Ninety-five Theses in which the infamous traffic of in- 
dulgences is condemned, and the keynote of the Reformation 
is sounded. The challenge was thereby thrust before the pomp- 
ous vendor of human souls to make good his pretensions and 
defend his miserable traffic. It was the signal for the fray. 
It was the first move in the fierce struggle which turned the world 
upside down. 

In the beginning the contest was confined to the little monk 
and the trafficker in spiritual goods. But the doctor of Witten- 
berg soon drove his antagonist to the wall. Thinking to escape 
from the assaults of his opponent and to bring the monk of 
Erfurt to a speedy ruin, Tetzel somewhat changed the subject 
of dispute, and planted himself behind the superhuman author- 
ity of his infallible master. But this wily step could not shield 
him from the powerful weapons of the Saxon monk. It is 
true, at first he meant by no means to assail the authority of the 
papacy, believing, as he had been taught in his boyhood, that 
the bishop was the true head of the Church and the legitimate 
lord of God's heritage. 



Martin Luther 217 

He himself declares : "From the bottom of my heart I 
revered the Pope's Church as the true Church, and I did so 
with far more veneration than all those scandalous corrupters 
who, to oppose me, now extol it so mightily. If I had despised 
the Pope as those men really despise him in their hearts, who 
praise him so much with their lips, I should have trembled lest 
the earth would instantly have opened and swallowed me up 
like Korah and his company." 

The Pope himself in the beginning was indifferent to the 
controversy waged between these two priests. " 'Tis a mere 
monkish squabble," he said one day; "the best way is not to 
meddle with it." At another time he observed, "It is a drunken 
German that has written these theses ; when the fumes have passed 
off he will talk differently." But the proud Vicar was altogether 
ignorant of the nature of the struggle going on, and the char- 
acter of the man who raised his voice against the market of 
indulgence. In a little while he would learn how serious is the 
fight, and how much it involved the stability of his throne. 
Tetzel, vanquished at Wittenberg, betakes himsef to Frankfort, 
where before three hundred monks prepared for the occasion, 
he reads his notorious theses, among which are the following: 
"We should teach Christians that the Pope by the greatness of 
his power, is above the whole universal Church, and supreme 
to the councils, and that we should implicitly obey his decrees. 
We should teach Christians that the Pope alone has the right 
of deciding in all matters of Christian faith; that he alone, and 
no one besides him, has power to interpret the meaning of Scrip- 
ture according to his own views, and to oppose all the words 
or writings of other men. We should teach Christians that the 
judgment of the Pope cannot err in matters of Christian faith, 
or that are necessary to the salvation of the human race." 

Thus the field of battle was transported from the indulgence 
market place to the halls of the Vatican. 

The monk of Erfurt was astonished. He had no thought 
of assailing the head of the Church, or calling in question the 
authority of the Roman see. He still revered the Pope, though 
he had lost some respect for him. Existing circumstances now 



218 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

led him to look more closely into the grounds of papal power. 
He corresponded with his friends, and searched the Scriptures 
carefully to see whether this assumption of divine authority was 
well founded. He found no proof for it. 

Still he was undecided as to his course until the famous 
scholastic theologian, Dr. Eck, entered the arena, and challenged 
him to combat. The question of dispute was whether the power 
and authority of the Pope were derived from God or man. The 
monk of Erfurt boldly and triumphantly maintained the nega- 
tive, proving from the inspired Word that God had not ordained 
the Pope as head of the Church, and therefore no reason 
existed for believing in him as the guardian of the truth and 
the keeper of the salvation of mankind. The mighty man 
of Wittenberg was no longer in a doubtful frame of mind. 

He had taken the needful step. He had drawn the sword 
against the unlawful head of the Church. He was now in open 
rebellion against the hierarchy of Rome. The Reformation 
had begun. His friends were alarmed, and begged him with 
tears in their eyes to desist from further assault against the 
doctrines and ancient bulwarks of holy faith. But well had he 
reckoned his course. He had counted the cost, and it was not 
rashly that he placed himself against the tide of papal arro- 
gance and superstition. He lifted up the standard of the Cross 
in the eyes of all the people, and proclaimed with increased ardor 
the Gospel of life and light through Jesus Christ. 

While his scholastic antagonist flees to Rome and obtains 
the fierce decree of condemnation, the monk of Erfurt by 
tongue and pen heralds the glad tidings of divine love through- 
out the kingdoms of Germany. And when the infuriated doctor 
returns with the presumptuous edict of Rome, with which he 
meant with one blow to crush the daring monster of Witten- 
berg and rid the world of this dangerous man, the Saxon monk 
comes forth afresh, and like the irresistible avalanche, bears 
down his adversary, and moves forward in his mighty work to 
triumphant success. 

He was not a self-conceited man, trusting in his own wisdom 
and boasting in his own power. The conflict in which he was 



Martin Luther 219 

enlisted he did not deem his own fight, but the battle of God. 
With a childlike simplicity and a faith unequalled in his day, 
he appealed to the divine Founder of the Church. When those 
who had joined him in the fierce struggle grew fearful and 
faint at heart, he was calm and strong, upheld by an earnest 
trust in his God which made him glad in the thickest of the fight. 
He was eminently the Christian hero of his age. Never since 
Apostolic days had such undaunted courage been exhibited in 
the face of an angry enemy. 

The fury of an enraged papacy was at its highest pitch. 
The rage of an infuriated Pope knew no bounds. The blood- 
thirsty shrieks of a godless priesthood rent the air of all Christ- 
endom; and the strong arms of civil power were reaching out 
in all directions with death warrants in their hands. The shout 
went up from Romish inquisitors, "It is high treason against 
the Church to allow such a heretic to live an hour longer. Let 
the scaffold be instantly erected for him." 

But amid the rage of the Pope, the death warrants from 
the empire and the thunders of the inquisition, the monk of 
Erfurt was undaunted. "Go," said he to the blood-thirsty 
inquisitor, "go, thou raving murderer who criest for the blood 
of thy brethren. It is my earnest desire that thou forbear to 
call me Christian and faithful, and that thou continue on the 
contrary to call me heretic. Understandest thou these things, 
blood-thirsty man, enemy of the truth? And if thy mad rage 
should hurry thee to undertake anything against me, take care 
to act with circumspection and to choose thy time well. God 
knows my purpose if he grants me life. My hope and my 
expectation, God willing, will not deceive me." 

The defiant speech of the German monk aroused his country- 
men, and penetrated the halls of the Roman palace, causing 
papal iniquity to tremble at its very foundation. Bribes, en- 
treaties and threats had all alike failed. The deep-laid schemes 
of wily cardinals were no sooner presented than they were thrust 
through and through. The philosophic arguments of profound 
schoolmen were triumphantly confuted. The Saxon monk was 
everywhere victorious, marching on as the great leader of an 



220 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

irresistible revolution. The successor of St. Peter and his 
crafty ministers looked aghast at one another. The colossal 
fabric of which they were the keepers was • tottering under the 
heavy blows of the Augustinian monk. Immediate action was 
demanded. One more desperate stroke must be made. All 
Germany is in a blaze of excitement. France is being stirred, 
and the writings of Luther shake the throne of England and 
move the people. Then a diet is proposed. Worms shall be 
the place. The king must preside, and the merciless legates 
of Rome conduct the trial. The German monk is summoned 

to appear. The elector of Saxony, his protector, feared to let 
him go, judging that it would cost him his head. But he nobly 
declared, "I will, when cited, if it shall be in my power, rather 
procure myself to be carried there sick, if I shall not be able 
to go there in good health." 

Here sat the scowling legate of the Pope, before whose 
majesty the kings of the whole world tremble, impatient for 
the final onset and thirsting for blood. And yonder stood the 
monk of Wittenberg alone, unprotected, without anyone who 
dared to plead his cause, without armies to draw the sword in 
his defense. What an exciting scene ! Never had a man stood 
before such an august assembly. The chancellor rises and breaks 
the oppressive silence by asking the monk whether these books 
are his production. He acknowledges that they are, and at 
the same time requests that time be granted him for careful 
reflection before he answers more at length. It is granted. 
On the following day he appears again before the illustrious 
emperor, and without dismay explains the nature of his works, 
and with undaunted courage in the presence of the greatest 
monarch of the world, reminds him of the Pharaohs, the kings 
of Babylon, and those of Israel, who by resisting God brought 
on themselves speedy destruction. When he had concluded, 
the chancellor said roughly, "You have not answered the ques- 
tion put to you. You are required to give a clear and precise 
answer. Will you or will you not retract?" Without a 
moment's hesitation the monk replied : "Since you, most serene 
majesty, require from me a clear, simple and precise answer, 



Martin Luther 221 

I will give you one, and it is this : I cannot submit my faith 
either to the Pope, or to councils, because it is clear as the day 
that they have frequently erred and contradicted each other. 
Unless, therefore, I am convinced by the testimony of Scripture, 
or by the clearest reasoning; unless I am persuaded by means 
of the passages I have quoted ; and unless my conscience is 
persuaded by the Word of God, / cannot and I will not 
retract/' And then, looking around on the assembly before which 
he stood and in whose hands was his life, he said : "Here I 
stand; I can do no other; God help me!" 

It was thus that a monk spake before the emperor and 
princes of the nation. The empire and the Church and this 
obscure, despised man had come together. But he was greater 
and mightier than them all. The wisdom of these kings and 
haughty prelates was utterly confounded. The assembly was 
thunderstruck. The emperor in amazement exclaimed : "This 
monk speaks with an intrepid heart and unshaken courage." 
It was a critical hour. The destiny of a nation, the cause of 
humanity, the weal of millions and of generations to come hung 
on the "yes" or "no" of a single monk. His enemies labored 
to terrify him. His friends trembled and wished for com- 
promise. 

The chancellor again insultingly addressed him: "The em- 
peror calls upon you to say 'yes' or 'no,' whether you will re- 
tract." "I have no other reply to make than that which I have 
already made," the monk calmly answered. Firm as a rock 
was he. The waves of human power dashed against him, only 
to be hurled back with redoubled fury. The power of his 
words, his noble bearing, his piercing eyes, his unshaken firm- 
ness clear as the sunlight on the rough outlines of his German 
face, had overwhelmed the most illustrious assembly of the age. 
The princes and their august emperor were amazed. The pre- 
lates and inquisitors of Rome were dumb. The monk of Erfurt 
alone had conquered these mighty ones, and had dared to say 
"no" to the Church and the empire. This was playing the 
hero; this was Christian intrepidity of the highest order. 



222 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

We have heard of the valor of Thermopylae, where three 
hundred brave Spartans stood against the proud Xerxes, and 
hurled back his Persian hosts. We have read of Marathon and 
Leuctra, fields of courage and victory. We are familiar with 
the mighty ones who blaze out in the constellation of heroes. 
But theirs was a valor and heroism outdone by the "solitary 
monk who shook the world ;" single-handed, he fought the battle 
of conscience, and won. 

In 1546 he left the scenes of strife and toil to join the 
great cloud of witnesses. But only a few years later the great 
Charles V. visited his tomb, and paid honor to the dust of him 
who once defied his majesty. While reading the inscription 
on the grave-stone, one of the courtiers who accompanied him 
proposed to open the grave and give the ashes of the heretic to 
the winds. The monarch's cheeks flushed with indignation. 
"I war not with the dead," said he, "let this place be respected." 
And there are others who, deeply stirred by the bravery of his 
life, have turned away in their proud march for empires, to take 
a look at the silent spot where lie his remains — Frederick the 
Great, Peter of Russia, Wallenstein, Napoleon. But these 
names, the sounds of which still shake the casements of the 
world, are impotent beside the dust of the champion of Worms. 

The Saxon monk was a remarkable man, bold as a lion in 
the conflict, mild as a lamb in his home. The service he has 
rendered Germany and the world can never be forgotten. That 
beautiful, full-sounding language, of which the German is so 
proud, was lifted by the great reformer out of its barbaric state, 
and shaped and polished into its present form by his genius. 
The Word of God, which for centuries was kept in darkness 
in a lifeless tongue, he brought from the dusty shelf, put it in 
a new intelligible dress, and sent it out into every household 
of his native land. He dispatched it over the dividing lines of 
nations and across the seas to go on in its work of regenerating 
the families of the earth. With his voice he spake to his 
neighbors and his countrymen, and through the press he awak- 
ened the slumbering millions of other lands, and called forth the 
suffering pious few of remoter regions who had fled to the caves 



Martin Luther 223 

and mountains to escape the fury of Rome. These he called 
forth, and by his manly speech and dauntless courage inspired 
them to defy the mightiest power of the Roman despot. He 
laid down as the grand principle of his work justification by 
faith alone, not in the sense of an abstract doctrine, but of a 
living, practical truth to be received by the heart. He main- 
tained the highest religious liberty, insisting on the freedom of 
the Christian man as being paramount to the authority of popes 
and bishops and all civil power. And these sentiments, which 
were so distasteful to the great ones of his day and opposed 
to the oppression of the times in Church and state, have not 
perished with his death. Though his own countrymen have 
somewhat ignored the principles of civil and religious liberty 
which the monk of Erfurth so fearlessly advocated, drawn as 
they were from the Gospel of liberty; yet these thoughts have 
been caught up by other peoples, and in far distant lands, and 
have ripened into those institutions of religious liberty and civil 
freedom which are now the praise of the world. 

Three hundred and fifty years have gone, and the world is 
all the better that this monk once lived. There have been good 
men through these centuries who have done much for the wel- 
fare of the race. There have been great men who have been 
the leaders of their generation in the onward march of God's 
Word. There have been mighty men who have figured high 
in the stage of life, and whose memory is cherished by mil- 
lions. But the monk of Erfurt stands amid them all as the 
leader of that great revolution in modern times which rolled 
back the widespread sea of Romish folly and superstition, and 
cleansed the stage of human history for better deeds and hap- 
pier lives. 

As a poet and scholar he stood high in his day. As an 
orator and theologian he was renowned. As a Christian re- 
former he was the greatest, and is the heritage of all coming 
time. 

He has long since gone from the world, but his works do 
follow him. He made for himself a name and fame that will 



224 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

never perish. He is the father of Protestantism; the might- 
iest man of modern days. 

There are some names that will never die — names that will 
shine out brighter and brighter through the ages to come ; names 
whose mention will stir the souls of men and inspire the sub- 
limest heroism. Among these is the name of Martin Luther, 
the hero of modern times. 



PHILIP MELANCHTHON 

I DEEM it a privilege to say a few words about a man whose 
life-work attracts general attention. He is an historic man, a 
universal man. His name is familiar to evangelical Christen- 
dom, and is respected wherever learning has a seat. 

Philip Melanchthon is one of the select spirits of our race 
— one among the few who have stood at the strategic points 
of human history and turned its stream into new channels. As 
such, he belongs not to a single generation, or a single century, 
but to all the ages and people following his time. He is a 
world-wide man, and lives in all the times succeeding his day. 
Without him the history of our race would lack one of its chiefs. 
Modern civilization would not be as it is. Precisely what it 
might be I could not say, but I am sure it would be a different 
fact. I do not presume to tell. 

When we sum up historic achievement, the figures gotten 
are a few personalities such as Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, 
Washington, Lincoln on the one side; Moses, Paul, Augustine, 
Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin and Wesley on the other. These 
are men of commanding power, the immortal company of the 
great, the agents of destiny. Personalities, I said, not things. 
Persons there are, and things; but things are only the minis- 
ters of persons ; perhaps, rather, the servants of master souls 
who compel them to do their bidding. Supreme personalities 
they are, who by thought and will sway the multitudes of man- 
kind. 

Among these eminent ones stands Philip Melanchthon. By 
common consent this is the high place accorded him. Three 
hundred and thirty-seven years have gone since he died, and yet on 
his four hundredth birthday the story of his life is rehearsed 
throughout the civilized world. Scholar and theologian, Greek 
and Roman, German and Englishman celebrate the natal day 



226 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

of the armourer's son. The elite of mankind pay homage to 
Master Philip. 

The average man scarcely lives beyond his generation ; at 
most a century entombs his memory. Or if it occur that here 
and there along the course of centuries one appears who, fat- 
on beyond his day, evokes admiration and grateful recollection 
of his distant fellows, they are of his clan or tribe and not his 
brothers of all mankind. 

But why this praise today? Why this song and speech 
of high honor which sound around the world and thrill the 
hearts of millions? Why is it that press, pulpit and forum 
vie with one another in eulogism? The reason cannot be a sub- 
ject of vulgar fame. No; it is about a man, a rare man, a 
broad tall man, whose form, like that of the Alpine peak, was 
encircled by the glory of the rising sun of a new day. So tall 
was he that men centuries away distinctly see his radiant, 
majestic figure, and are filled with admiration and delight. 

To the Lutheran world he is especially interesting. He 
was the companion of another great historic personage, Martin 
Luther. By the side of this monarch among men he sat, with 
him he toiled, with him he battled for the truth, with him he 
shared the sweetness of joy and the bitterness of woe. With 
him he prayed, with him he searched out the treasures of grace 
and with him he wrought the work which has turned the world 
upside down. Two halves of a whole were these two com- 
plements of each other. One was the miner who dug up and 
brought out in rough shape the precious truth of God's Word; 
the other fashioned this truth into classic speech and scientific 
form. Wonderful men they were, each in his sphere without 
a peer, and when taken together, they furnished the well-rounded 
personality of a complete man. Luther was not Melanchthon, 
neither was Melanchthon Luther ; but the two united formed that 
unique man, who stood before kings and emperors in confession 
of the faith with unshaken courage ; who, in the presence of 
the populace, spoke in persuasive voice the words of eternal 
life; who, in graceful, dignified, well-chiseled sentences, the 
language of the schools, before the learned and cultured of his 



Philip Melanchthon 227 

age, matched the elegance and skill of the long-famed orators 
of the world; and who with facile pen engraved in imperish- 
able form his insight into those wonderful revelations of the 
Man of Nazareth. 

It was, indeed, a splendid providence that these wise and 
mighty men joined hands on the stage of the world's theatre to 
perform the last great act in the drama of human career. 
How well they played, each his part, is matter of universal 
fame — the pride and boast of their posterity. 

With unusual interest, we in the closing years of the nine- 
teenth century recall, on this fourth centennial birthday, the 
noble life and service for the Church and world of one of 
these two illustrious men of God. We do honor to him as a 
man, a scholar, a theologian. We are not ashamed to say be- 
fore a Christian gathering, he was a Protestant, and he was 
a Lutheran. 

Two services, I take it, Philip Melanchthon gave to the 
Christian Church and to modern times : First, the exhibition of a 
new view of the relation between nature and grace, the thought of 
science and knowledge of faith; second, an exhibition of the 
ethical conception of man in the fullness of this idea.* 

First, then, the young Melanchthon came in contact with 
the new learning, that of the Renaissance, which had been saved 
from the hands of the marauding Turks and had been brought 
into central and western Europe — the philosophy and classic 
literature of Greece. He opened this wonderful volume of 
human knowledge with indescribable eagerness. The wider he 
opened its pages, the intenser grew his interest. He caught the 
fullness of its spirit, and became, without reserve, enlisted in 
pursuit of its mastery. He fathomed its depths ; he encompassed 
its breadth ; he searched its height ; he absorbed its life, and made 



*It is a matter of regret that here, at the last moment, a section of 
Dr. Ort's manuscript is found to be missing. In order to preserve the con- 
nection we take the liberty of supplying the first sentence and part of the 
second sentence of the next paragraph — that is, to the word "inde- 
scribable." Evidently, however, the doctor had dwelt at some length on 
the Renaissance, and we regret that his keen and comprehensive analysis 
of that great historic movement has been lost. — Editor. 



228 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

himself possessor of its truest culture ; he grew to be the ripest 
scholar of his time, and gained for himself a chief place in the 
realm of natural knowledge ; he became a man of broadest learn- 
ing, and was called a humanist. 

Such was the Melanchthon of youthful days. Admirable, 
however, as was his personality in the earlier period of his life, 
still it exhibited but one chief factor — the culture of learning 
and natural knowledge. It was merely Erasmus reproduced. 
And such in all probability it would have continued to be had 
not providential circumstances ordered otherwise. One day 
the youth of classic mould came to Wittenberg. His fame for 
learning had spread among the cultured elite of Germany. From 
different universities voices came to his ears calling him to a 
preceptor's chair. One of them, an earnest, urgent voice, he 
heeded, and thus became a teacher of the new University of 
Wittenberg, now rapidly rising to distinction. He found him- 
self at once amidst new circumstances, new influences, new 
companions. He was in a new world. 

One man in the University was the chief spirit. He was 
the embodiment of the great movement just starting, destined 
to encompass the world, and fill the ages with its mighty power 
and benign influence. For himself, after a long and desper- 
ate struggle, he gained the new wisdom which is not from be- 
neath and earthly, but from above and heavenly — the wisdom 
which searches out the deep things of God, and is not discerned 
by natural acumen. It was the wisdom of faith. Coming in 
contact intimately, day by day, and hearing often fresh expo- 
sitions of this wisdom, the youthful professor and skilled Greek 
soon observed its superior value, and saw that a whole world 
of new and precious truths was in process of discovery. He, 
too, believed as Luther did, and henceforth walked in a purer, 
brighter light. He, too, had gained the new wisdom. The 
realities of the kingdom of grace stood before him in clear view. 
He knew as he had not known before, and a whole realm of 
most glorious possessions presented itself to his astonished gaze, 
even what eye cannot see, nor ear hear, nor does it enter into 
the heart of man to conceive — the things that are spiritual, eter- 



Philip Melanchthon 229 

nal. A higher, truer knowledge of the everlasting verities filled 
his soul — a knowledge which came to him, not through the cog- 
nition of natural reason, but in the apprehension of saving faith. 

Two kinds of knowledge were now in his possession. One 
represented the old wisdom, and pertained to the first creation. 
The other expressed the new wisdom, and found its source in 
the second creation. One is the first Adam; the other of the 
Second, who is the Lord from heaven. 

And now what shall he do with these acquisitions? Must 
he hold them to be antagonistic, the one unfriendly to the other? 
As a true and faithful child of God, must he regard the learn- 
ing and culture of human reason as a weapon of evil; the first 
creation a contradiction of the second ; nature and grace in end- 
less opposition? As a Christian man, must he henceforth hate 
the products of reason, art, science and philosophy, and resign 
himself to the culture of the spiritual in divorcement from the 
natural? To have assumed such an attitude would only have 
been an imitation of the earlier Luther, or, perhaps more truly, 
the expression of an abstract spiritual man, who imagines nature 
to be the kingdom of Satan and all its contents agencies of his 
power. 

Luther, great, hearty soul that he was, had already, with 
the glance of his eagle eye, discerned the truth of things. He 
saw that in Christ nature and grace are one; that in Him the 
two revelations agree; that creation does not exclude redemp- 
tion, but redemption saves creation; that faith and science con- 
stitute the true unity of all knowledge. This was the conviction 
of the great reformer, the belief of his religion. It was the 
unity of faith. There needed yet to be the expression of this 
unity in fact — in other words, a Christian philosophy, a Chris- 
tian science. Luther had found a new source of knowledge, 
and had brought to light thereby a great world of spiritual realities. 
It remained for Melanchthon to exhibit the contents of this 
knowledge under the form of reason — in short, to unite in 
thought the old wisdom and the new. This he did, and as 
the result there appeared the union of humanism and the Gos- 
pel, not in the form of religious belief, as was the case with 



230 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

Luther, but under the laws of intellectual understanding, a 
Christian philosophy of the universe. In this union we have 
a personality altogether unique, distinct, neither an Erasmus on 
the one hand, nor a Luther on the other, but a Melanchthon. 
As a reformer, Luther in a most remarkable manner exhibited 
the union of the individual soul with Christ by personal faith. 
As a reformer, Melanchthon exhibited the union of this faith 
with reason. While the one stands pre-eminent as a person- 
ality in the spiritual realm, the other is no less pre-eminent in 
the intellectual sphere. In Melanchthon Protestantism and 
Lutheranism find their union with the learning and science of 
human understanding, and we see this union of the man of 
reason and the man of God personally exhibited. 

What service has Melanchthon rendered modern times? 
He has set forth, as the Christian and the humanist, the agree- 
ment of human learning with Christianity; he has freed the 
Reformation principle from mere subjectivity, from a one-sided 
mysticism on the one hand, and from scholasticism on the other; 
he has eliminated from it "accidental and purely incidental fea- 
tures of personal, inward experiences and intuitions ;" and in the 
language of another: "He showed how the newly discovered 
mines of antiquity subserve the study of the Scriptures; how 
every art and science would, through the refreshing return to 
the sources, blossom anew, in order to present their spices to an 
ennobled human existence; and finally how, through all the 
arts and sciences and through the whole house of humanity, the 
precious ointment of the Gospel would penetrate like a heavenly 
odor." 

Long had the human mind busied itself with finding the 
true relation between faith and science. Away back in patristic 
days men sought hard to exhibit the harmony of nature and 
grace. Then down through the Middle Ages most powerful 
intellects, such as Aquinas and Bernard, sought diligently, by 
means of abstract thought, to resolve the dualism of reason and 
Gospel; but not until Reformation times did one appear who, 
on the one hand, was thoroughly filled with the spirit of 
natural knowledge, and, on the other, by a high experience had 



Philip Melanchthon 231 

learned to know the widely significant truths of the Gospel. 
Not until then did there stand forth a man who in himself, in 
the apprehension of his intellectual understanding, found ex- 
pression for the living unity of the principles of nature and the 
truths of grace ; who took the old forms of rational thought and 
filled them with the contents of Christian faith, and thus wedded 
the old and the new. 

And this man was Philip Melanchthon, who in his intel- 
lectual and spiritual personality expresses the union of faith and 
science, the great truth realized in its entire fullness in the person 
of Jesus Christ. 

Thus the Reformation of the sixteenth century apprehended, 
in the intellectual thought of Melanchthon, the unity of the king- 
dom of nature and the kingdom of grace, and thus furnished the 
final philosophy and a correct Christian science, the contents of 
a valid education. 

I now pass to a brief survey of the second service rendered 
by Melanchthon, namely, the ethical conception of man. What 
a man is fixes his relation to existences other than himself. If, 
in the range of his capacities, he rises no higher than a thing 
of sense, his connection with whatever is outside himself will 
be determined accordingly. If, in his better powers, he reaches 
no further than the intellectual, his highest relationship will be 
limited by the laws of thought. But if he, in the possession 
of ethical excellencies, rises to the moral sphere, then will he, 
in the exercise of corresponding powers, be free. In short, he 
is a person. And this is the conception which man, by his 
career of more than five thousand years, has distinctly evinced. 
The history of the human centuries consists pre-eminently of 
moral deeds. The fierce struggles and desperate conflicts of men 
have always involved moral principle. Man, the actor, has ever 
shown himself to be a personal being, and as such continually 
strives to possess the highest good. 

But he is a sinful creature, and as such is not now as he 
was at the outset of his existence. To what extent has he 
fallen from his original estate? This is a perplexing question, 
and to it three answers have been given: First, that the native 



232 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

moral powers have not been impaired by sin; second, that they 
have been weakened; third, that they have been lost, and that 
it is now beyond the power of man to will the spiritually good. 
Or as Dr. Shedd phrases it: "According to the first, sinful 
man is alive; according to the second, he is sick; according to 
the third, he is dead." In theological speech the first is called 
the Pelagian, the second, the Semi-pelagian, and the third, the 
Augustinian. 

In the fierce controversy of the fifth century involving this 
question, Augustine, a man of great intellect and comprehensive 
soul, prevailed. His conclusion, which denied to the human 
creature all freedom in spiritual things, became the recognized 
belief of the orthodox Latin Church. This view of sinful man 
found its way down through the Middle Ages, finding such 
advocates as Anselm, and then appeared as an early doctrine 
of the Reformation. Luther especially schooled, as he had 
been, in the doctrines of Augustine, and even Melanchthon at 
first, were its supporters. But the Christian humanist could 
not long rest satisfied with a teaching which pushed human per- 
sonality almost out of sight, robbed man entirely of the very 
jewel of his possessions, and made him to be in the initial work 
of regeneration an absolutely passive thing. While he recog- 
nized the truth of human inability in heavenly things, the im- 
potency of our native will to begin the good work of grace, and 
that it is God alone who from beginning to end produces the 
great change, nevertheless, he was not unmindful of the fact 
that man by his fall had not lost every good. There still re- 
mained conscience, whose presence the human soul in its nat- 
ural state evermore evinced. Schooled, as he had been, in the 
best Greek thought, and led thus to recognize the high concep- 
tion of personal freedom which the rational mind had gained; 
instructed, as he was by the Gospel, that the saving grace of 
Christ is for all men; led, on the one hand, by the Theism of 
Plato and Aristotle, and, on the other, by the Theism of the 
Gospel to believe in a personal God, a God who' is absolutely 
free ; and again, convinced by the Greek idea of man, and also 
by that of the Gospel, that the human creature is a person, — 



Philip Melanchthon 233 

Melanchthon was unable to adopt a view other than that which 
ever emphasized the fact that the relation between God and His 
human creature is evermore personal; that in all His dealings 
with man the Divine Being will constantly proceed according to 
this relation; and that in every divine act, and especially in that 
which concerns the highest well-being of the individual human 
soul, the fact that man is a person will be preserved inviolate. 

While for one thing he rejected in part the Semi-pelagian 
theory, he still recognized in it a most important truth, namely, 
a right regard for the ethical nature of man and the mainten- 
ance of a true personality. While in part he rejected the Augus- 
tinian view, he still recognized in it a most fundamental truth, 
namely, that God alone works regeneration. 

This view, which preserves the true personality of man at 
every stage of the work of individual salvation, and which is 
a modification of the Semi-pelagian and Augustinian positions, 
a limiting of Greek anthropology, on the one side, and of Latin 
anthropology, on the other, is that apprehension of the operations 
of divine grace and the sinfulness of man which is known 
as Melanchthonianism. It gives to Lutheran theology one of its 
prime distinctive features. 

This apprehension of the great theologian of the Refor- 
mation pervades the structure of the Augsburg Confession. 
Through this apprehension the two theologies, Greek and Latin, 
are placed within right limits and in systematic unity; the one 
emphasizing the ethical in man, the other the sovereignty of 
God. These two streams of Christian teaching, after having 
coursed through the centuries side by side, come together in the 
clear, profound thought of Philip Melanchthon, which in 1530 
received an outward, permanent expression in that masterpiece 
of the human mind, the Augustana. 

Humanism and theology are joined in everlasting wedlock 
by the quiet man at Wittenberg. Their union is a system of 
doctrine, comprehensive, profound and imperishable. It com- 
prehends the articles of faith for the Church of the Reforma- 
tion, and contains the elements of the true Lutheran theology 
in its widest scope. It sums up in systematic relation the best 



234 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

and truest thoughts of the Christian ages, and in so doing must 
ever be recognized as the mediator between a false Semi- 
pelagianism and an extreme Augustinianism. Its expression 
— the Confession produced at Augsburg — will ever stand in 
history as the sublimest work of reconciliation between the truth 
in man and the truth in God. And this achievement is the pro- 
duction of Philip Melanchthon. 

No wonder he yet lives ! Not strange that, after four 
hundred years, his birthday is celebrated with gladdest enthusi- 
asm. The vast and massive thoughts which took shape in his 
mind are the imperishable truths of creation and redemp- 
tion, which, in the onrolling of the centuries and the upward 
movement of the race, the Christian mind will apprehend more 
and more in the fullness of their reality. 

When a thousand years shall have gone by, the conceptions of 
Philip Melanchthon will be the subjects of the intensest medita- 
tions and profoundest belief. Aye, this grand personality, ex- 
hibiting the union of man and God and the Man of humanity, 
will still be an object of high admiration, and in it men will see, 
as they can see now, the solution of the problem of the ages. 

Philip Melanchthon can never pass from human recollec- 
tions. His is one of the few immortal names that were not 
born to die.* 



*In this eulogy, delivered before a promiscuous audience on Melanch- 
thon's four hundredth birthday anniversary, Dr. Ort evidently did not 
feel that it would be seemly to indulge in criticism. Let it be remem- 
bered that he does not refer to Melanchthon's theological work after the 
writing of the Augsburg Confession. Knowing Dr. Ort as we did, we 
feel sure he would not have commended Melanchthon in the compromises 
he advocated in the Variatas of 1540 and 1542, nor in the Synergism 
which he subsequently developed. Indeed, we often heard Dr. Ort defend 
the Unaltered Augsburg Confession. — Editor. 



GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS 

Ladies and Gentlemen: 

I AM here this evening to tell you a story. It is the story of 
a great life; great because of what it was and what it did. 
It was a serious life, and hence gives little, if any, room in the 
recital of its deeds for mere entertainment. The witty and 
humorous please and entertain, but the beautiful, the true and 
the good move the deeper sensibilities of our natures. Our Isaac 
Steins and Lebensbergers tickle our fancy and are well enough 
for pastime. Our Williams the Silent, our Gladstones, our 
Washingtons and our Lincolns, in the portrayal of their char- 
acters and of what they wrought, absorb attention and stir the 
soul with deeply thrilling emotion — these for our sober moments 
and graver mental moods. 

But to my task. Two hundred and fifty years ago ! This 
seems a long time, far back in the world's career. And yet 
comparatively it was not so distant — only two centuries and a 
half. In those times, perhaps, we have little interest, but we 
must not forget that then our very great grandfathers and grand- 
mothers lived. They were days somewhat different from ours, 
it is true. There were no railroads then, and telegraphs, and 
steamboats ; no sewing machines, except the kind God made ; 
no telephones, no trolley cars, no daily papers, no stocks well 
watered, no trading in wheat margins in towns like Chicago, and 
no trusts. The face of things wore quite another expression. 
The people of those times had the old-fashioned way of living. 
They dressed, of course, according to the style of the day. They 
ate homely dishes, such as "sauerkraut and speck," and drank 
their mugs of beer. They walked and talked, they sat and rode 
much as people do today. They courted and flirted, they mar- 
ried and divorced somewhat after the present fashion. They 
gossiped and scolded, fussed and fumed, blessed and cursed, — 



236 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

in short, they were very natural, and lived homespun lives of 
drudgery and toil, of suffering and struggle, of sorrow and joy. 
Theirs was an age of mighty stir; an age of radical change, 
when gray-bearded notions were upset and set adrift on the 
stream of forgetf ulness ; when beliefs long cherished were 
scathed and riddled and flung to the ground; when institutions, 
fostered by many centuries of prejudice, were upturned and 
demolished ; when wild superstitions, which had long been the 
plague of simple-minded, plain, honest folk, were shivered in 
pieces and swept from their credulous minds. It was an age 
of grand revolution ; a day when the minds of men began to 
start up from their long inaction, and work out thoughts fresh 
and strong — thoughts which startled hierarchs and oppressors 
of the people and whose power made the mightiest thrones of 
the old world to tremble and totter; thoughts which awoke the 
sleeping energies of thousands, nerved them for the hard task 
of setting right the progress of mankind, and persuaded them 
to stake home and country for a new order of things and a hap- 
pier lot. It was the Reformation age — that eventful time when 
the darkness of the night of papal tyranny was being dispelled 
from the nations by the light of the Gospel truth ; when the 
dignity and right of human conscience were openly asserted, 
and the awful struggle for religious liberty was taken up. 

It was an heroic age. Brave men came to the front ; cour- 
ageous men; men who dared to resist the oppression of the 
times and grapple, single-handed, with the greatest empire of 
the day; an empire which stretched from the Mediterranean 
Sea to the North Sea and from the Atlantic Ocean to the 
dominions of the Russian Bear; an empire whose rulers were 
narrow-minded, bigoted, selfish men ; rulers who were the truck- 
ling servants of one master monarch, and did with pleasure and 
servile devotion the bidding of his will ; rulers who had no con- 
science, and who would rather wade through seas of blood to 
gratify their hate for honest-hearted, inoffensive people, than 
scatter seeds of kindness among the much-abused subjects of 
their realm. 

Luther, the giant of his time, had come upon the stage, 



Gustavus Adolphus 237 

acted his part to the astonishment of kings and cardinals and 
popes, and had retired from the scene in triumph. The revo- 
lution, of which he was the guiding mind, had swept over a large 
part of Europe, and had especially changed the religious order 
of things in the kingdoms of Germany. Protestantism had become 
a great fact ; and its strong arms were reaching out into all quar- 
ters. The new movement set on foot by a Saxon monk had steadily 
pushed on, at first eliciting merely the contempt of the so-called 
wise men and the keepers of the old world's destiny ; but by and 
by making their faces grow pale, startling them out of their 
dream, choking with painful fears, and driving them to under- 
take the most desperate policy for stopping the onward march 
of that power which has turned the world upside down. Threats 
rent the air as mere idle words. Trickery and deceit were alike 
useless, edicts, diets, all failed to stay the waves of trouble and 
change which came rolling over the Fatherland. 

Charles V., who was the political head of the German Em- 
pire during the earlier part of the Reformation period, had 
exhausted his powers of wily strategy to no effect. Protestant- 
ism still lived and flourished. His shrewd, calculating prom- 
ises were fruitless. The assertion of his imperial dignity was 
but child's babble. The unsheathing of his sword and his tramp- 
ing over the fairest fields of Protestant kingdoms ended in 
total failure. Protestantism still survived. In bloodless war- 
fare it had always triumphed and gone forward with renewed 
vigor; and now, when challenged to measure swords with an 
empire by the haughty Charles, it buckled on the armour of war, 
met its old enemy on the field of battle, and drove the proud 
emperor from his throne, far from the scene of defeat into a 
Spanish cloister. 

It was in 1556 that he laid aside the crown. In the pre- 
vious year the peace of Augsburg was concluded — a peace that 
was to be lasting and unconditional. Years passed and affairs 
grew more and more ominous. The two parties, Protestant 
and Catholic, were not at ease with one another. The rumb- 
ling sounds of discontent became more and more frequent. 
The papal power was not willing to surrender so large a terri- 



238 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

tory without another struggle. The signs of the times pointed 
clearly to the coming storm. The imbecile rulers, Rudolph and 
Matthias, had been shuffled to one side, and a man of different 
mettle was called to the throne. This man was Ferdinand 
the Second, at this time forty years of age. He possessed 
some qualities of the great, such as penetration and sagacity, 
undaunted perseverance, irresistible energy of character, res- 
ignation and fortitude in adversity, and a mind never enervated 
by success. But these great qualities were sullied and disgraced 
by the most puerile superstition, inveterate bigotry, and un- 
bounded ambition. In his government he was influenced by 
narrow views of intolerance and hate. He broke up the peace 
and happiness of his hereditary dominions; he ruled the empire 
as the head of a sect and chief of a party, and plunged Germany 
and Europe into thirty years of anarchy, persecution and blood- 
shed. In this he was the bane of his family, the enemy of his 
country and the scourge of his age. Brought up in the school 
of the Jesuits, he looked upon toleration as a dangerous heresy, 
and was highly fitted to execute the most daring schemes. 

Although the peace of Augsburg guaranteed religious rights 
to all the Protestant German states, yet he trampled these under- 
foot, and used to say that he would rather govern a wilderness 
than a country peopled with heretics. He paid no respect to 
the righteous claims of millions of his subjects, and boldly 
violated his solemn oath of protection, setting up as an excuse 
the miserable maxim that toward a heretic neither faith nor 
oath is binding. 

The first theatre of his unholy persecution was the native 
country of John Huss, Bohemia. On the people of this land 
Ferdinand had been foisted as king by his uncle. No sooner 
had he taken charge of governmental affairs than he began to 
act the role of the religious tyrant, closing some of the churches, 
destroying and casting into prison the most zealous of the citi- 
zens. He prohibited all gatherings of the people for Protestant 
worship, and thereby meant to crush by a single blow all "her- 
esies," as he termed them. To all this flagrant outrage the 
Bohemian lords could not quietly submit. And when firm pro- 



Gustavus Adolphus 239 

test proved vain, and the abolition of their privileges and liberty 
of conscience were openly proclaimed, their indignation knew 
no bounds. Armed men, headed by the deputies of the Prot- 
estant provinces, marched to the palace of Prague, where the 
officers were sitting, and demanded the president and his col- 
leagues to answer who was the author of the imperial response 
denying them religious freedom. 

Two of these officers answered nobly; the other two in- 
sultingly and with threats. The first two were simply driven 
from the room; the rest were seized by a maddened people and 
hurled from the window eighty feet above ground into a castle 
trench. And with this event began the famous Thirty Years' 
War; a war of awful crime and bloodshed, on which were 
staked the most precious liberties of the people and the better 
destiny of the world. After this bold handling of the imperial 
officers, there was left for the Bohemians but one choice — to 
arm themselves and defend their homes and religion. 

They formed a national government, organized an army, and 
took the field. At first victory attended their march, and two 
successive defeats taught the imperialists how hard it is to conquer 
a people fighting for their independence and religion. In a short 
time the enemy was thoroughly beaten, and the Bohemian army 
arrived triumphantly at the gates of Vienna. The conquest of 
the empire seemed at hand. Thus far the Bohemians had been 
alone in the struggle. But now, in order to make success certain 
beyond the possibility of failure, they offered the throne to the 
German elector, Frederick V., hoping by this means to enlist all 
Germany on their side in the fight. But Frederick was a weak 
man, fond of show and luxury, without influence in the Germanic 
states, or force of character sufficient to rally around his standard 
the Protestant people of the Fatherland. He accepted the king- 
ship offered, but found himself without allies. Given to carnal 
pleasures, he left the enemy to gather their forces and surround 
the capitol of his new state. In consequence he was quite soon 
ousted from his dominions and driven without his crown into 
the distant country of Holland. Ferdinand triumphed. The last 
hopes of the Protestants were shattered by disgraceful defeat 



240 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

under the walls of Prague. The cause of religious freedom in 
Bohemia was lost, and the iron scepter of papal tyranny was 
flourished by an unmerciful hand over a suffering people. Many 
of the nobles were beheaded, the estates of others were con- 
fiscated; the Lutheran and Calvinistic clergy were banished, 
and in the hands of the Jesuits was placed the sole control of 
national education. 

The ambitious emperor, however, was not content with 
having brought Bohemia under the yoke, nor, regarding himself 
as the right hand of the papacy, did he feel that the last blow 
had been struck. There were still left the fields where the seeds 
of the Reformation had first been sown — Germany. 

Accordingly his great general, Count Tilly, was ordered to 
undertake the conquest of the evangelical states. He at once 
entered on his work, vanquished the Protestant princes, and made 
Ferdinand's despotic power supreme. His savage gangs scoured 
the German provinces, plundering and ravaging everything, and 
brought upon innocent, harmless people all the miseries of war. 
Weary of the yoke which crushed them and exasperated by per- 
secution, the states roused themselves to a death grapple with 
the merciless foe. They rallied under their standard an army of 
sixty thousand men, and defiantly confronted the blood-thirsty 
general of the empire. With such an adversary Tilly was unable 
to cope. And now it looked as if the scales would turn, and that 
he who had vowed to enforce the worship of the Holy Virgin 
in all countries where his power could reach, even at the peril 
of his life, would meet with deserved and disastrous defeat. 

But just when the crisis had come, fortunately for Ferdinand, 
another stepped on the scene. Wallenstein, the richest nobleman 
of Bohemia. A writer says of him: "He was a strange man, 
born to command. His very appearance inspired reverence and 
awe. His figure was truly warlike. His jet-black hair was cut 
close above his high commanding brow, while in his bright pierc- 
ing eye was expressed depth of thought, combined with the coldest 
mystery." 

A man of destiny, he was the terror of his day. In accord- 
ance with the wishes of his master, he gathered around him an 



Gustavus Adolphus 241 

army composed of various nationalities, desperate men, ready for 
the most terrible crimes. He went forth on his mission of ruin, 
speedily defeated the ablest general of the Protestant armies, 
swept like a whirlwind over the German states, scattered his foes, 
and made himself master of their kingdoms. He robbed the peo- 
ple, murdered their wives and children, burned their towns, 
sacked their cities, plundered their homes and spread the most 
awful devastation throughout the land. His army was a minister 
of vengeance. 

Another has fitly said : "It numbered 120,000 men. In its 
midst waved the green standard of the conqueror, emblazoned 
with the figure of the goddess fortune, the only deity worshipped 
in the impious host." The camp was filled with plunder of the 
nobles and peasantry, and throngs of peddlers purchased at low 
rates rich armour and rare goods, sometimes stained with the 
blood of the owner. Prisoners were sold or ransomed; fair 
women became the prey of human monsters ; dreadful deeds of 
violence amused the godless host; deserters were hung or shot 
on every side, and the army of Wallenstein was believed to have 
exceeded the enormities of all other armies and to have sold itself 
to Satan. On all these crimes the mighty chief looked with the 
coldest indifference. 

His ambition knew no limit, and so, not satisfied with having 
brought the Protestant German states to the border of extinction, 
he cast his eye across the northern sea, and thirsted to subdue 
the wintry kingdoms of the Goths. But there was a barrier in 
the way, the free city of Stralsund, on the Baltic coast. The 
brave citizens rejected with disdain every demand for submission. 
The enraged conqueror besieged the city, and vowed its utter 
destruction. "Though Stralsund were linked by chains to the 
heavens above," he boasted in his pride, "I swear it shall fall." 
But weeks passed on. The heroic citizens beat back the insolent 
foe. Sweden gave them an exhibition of generalship and courage 
such as they had never witnessed. Twelve thousand soldiers of 
the haughty chief fell in vain assaults. Wallenstein gave up the 
siege, and was forced to admit himself checked in his mad career. 

Noble defenders of their homes and their priceless boon of 



242 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

liberty, these people of a little city on the shores of the Baltic 
put to shame the Protestant princes of Germany, and showed 
what might have been done to roll back the tide of war and crush 
the cruel invader, had all united in a common defense. But 
Wallenstein had conquered, and no Protestant leader of any con- 
sequence remained in the field. The Reformed cities and states 
sank into hopeless despondency, gave up the contest and awaited 
their doom. Protestantism was laid low in the dust. The good 
work of a hundred years had seemingly been brought to naught. 
Conscience was again enslaved, and the despotism of two previous 
centuries spread its pall over the people. It was a dark hour. 
The edict of restitution had gone forth, and the emperor was 
resolved to extend the authority of the Papal Church to the 
farthest limit of German rule. Two hundred thousand soldiers, 
veterans in war, constituted the watchdogs of Ferdinand, and 
stood ready at any moment to inflict still deeper wounds on a 
discouraged and suffering people, and if need be to enter on the 
devilish work of extermination. 

What hope could there be for a better day? How drear 
the prospect! Surely the glorious Reformation was torn up by 
the very roots. Its days were apparently numbered, and Protes- 
tantism seemed to be forever dead. 

But night brings out the stars. Just when the darkness grew 
the thickest, and there was no sign of a coming morn, another 
actor suddenly rushed on the stage. He came from a little king- 
dom beyond the sea — a small country, not much known, swept by 
the chilly winds of the north, where the Snow King sat enthroned. 
He came like the storm of his native land, quickly and mightily, 
to rescue a shattered cause, lift up a downcast people, and avenge 
the wrongs of his brethren in the faith. It was Gustavus 
Adolphus, the young and valorous king of Sweden. He was born 
in 1594, amid furious times. The dogs of war were let loose, and 
Sweden was just taking her place among the nations as an 
independent kingdom. High expectations were entertained by 
the people concerning this heir to the throne, and oftentimes there 
passed from one to the other the prophecy of a prince who should 
render himself illustrious in the states of Europe, and save the 
Evangelical Church. 



Gustavus Adolphus 243 

Gustavus in early life gave evidence of more than ordinary 
talent. He made rapid progress in all branches of study, and was 
known as a musician, poet and scholar. His instruction was 
thorough and laid the foundation for that unselfish devotion to 
the principles of the Reformation, which one day shone so bright 
on German battlefields. Charles IX spared nothing to render 
his son capable and worthy of being his successor. In his last 
farewell he said to him: 

"Above all, fear God, honor thy father and mother; show 
a deep respect for thy sisters and brothers; love the faithful 
servants of thy father, and reward each according to his merits ; 
be human toward thy subjects ; punish the wicked, love the good, 
trust everybody, though not unreservedly ; observe the laws 
without respect to persons; injure nobody's well acquired privi- 
leges, if consistent with the law." 

Under such advice he grew up to years of manhood. Every- 
thing was done to fit him for the responsible place he must shortly 
fill. With his mother he traveled throughout the kingdom to 
learn something of his subjects, and to gain that knowledge of 
them which would help him to rule wisely and well. Through 
the wise care of his father, he was brought early in contact with 
the officers of the crown and made familiar with that kind of 
practical life which books never teach. While still quite young, 
he showed striking fondness for military art and took great 
pleasure in talking about battles, sieges and the armaments and 
tactics of war. 

When in his eighteenth year his father died and he was 
called to perform the responsible duties of the crown, so brilliant 
were his talents, so mature his judgment, so marked his attain- 
ments, and such confidence did the Swedes repose in him, that 
two months after his accession, his guardians voluntarily resigned 
their authority, and procured an act of the states declaring Gus- 
tavus officially of full age. On this occasion the young king 
behaved with highest modesty and dignity. Addressing the 
Senate, he alluded in becoming terms to his youth and inexperience 
as serious difficulties in ruling a nation in times of commotion 
and upheaval. But, on the other hand, he declared that if the 



244 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

states should persist in making him king, he would endeavor to 
acquit himself with honor and fidelity. No sooner had he been 
crowned king of his native country, than he was challenged to 
accept the issue of the sword. The neighboring Danes had long 
sought to enlarge the borders of their principalities and blot 
Sweden from the map of nations. On the other side the Catholic 
sovereign of Poland, breathing hatred against the Reformation, 
strove to seat himself on the throne of Gustavus and restore the 
ancient worship of the Holy Virgin. With these powers he at 
once undertook to decide the existence of his kingdom, and settle 
the question of Protestant supremacy. In two years he van- 
quished the Danes, and extorted from them a peace which for- 
ever put Sweden alongside the governments of Europe. He met 
the Polanders on the field of battle, and proved himself their 
conqueror, insuring to his country the continuance of that simple 
religion first proclaimed among the Judean hills. "In a few 
years," it is recorded, "he conducted three wars to a successful 
end, reduced and conciliated three formidable enemies, and pre- 
vented in the meantime disorder and confusion in his own 
kingdom." 

During all these years of struggle and defense he had not 
been an idle observer of the conflict on the continent. Often did 
he cast a wistful, anxious eye toward his suffering brethren, and 
in his heart yearn to beat back the savage hords of Wallenstein 
and Tilly. And then, too, he knew what schemes were being 
plotted in the palace of Ferdinand, and how ambition and relig- 
ious bigotry were crouching like a tiger to leap on his kingdom 
and people as the next object of prey. He saw the form of 
Protestantism wounded and bleeding on the battlefields of super- 
stition. He' heard the rattling of the musketry, the roar of the 
cannon and shouts of the papacy. He saw the legions of Rome 
pushing their way northward, devastating the fertile lands, 
spreading desolation far and wide, and defiantly marching and 
countermarching along the southern shores of the Baltic Sea. 

And as he looked on these frightful, stirring scenes, and 
thought how dear are the liberties of conscience, and how 
righteous the cause of evangelical truth, he once more took up 



Gustavus Adolphus 245 

the sword, beckoned his tried and trusty soldiers to his side and 
flew to the rescue of Germany and the evangelical faith. It was 
November, 1629. He called his senate into extra session, and 
set forth the sad misfortune of their German brethren, and the 
dangers which were gathering thick and fast around Sweden. 
His chancellor was opposed to war, because of the unequal nature 
of the contest, and advised the king to give up the undertaking. 
But Gustavus was firm in his purpose. Having laid before the 
senate his plans and hopes, he ended with these words : 

"What can or cannot be done God alone knows. He only 
wishes into projects, wills into execution, and brings a good be- 
ginning to a glorious end. In eternity alone I shall find rest." 

Preparations were now made with the greatest activity. 
Ferdinand heard the news with contempt, and said, "We shall 
now have to contend with another little enemy." Wallenstein 
boasted: "I will soon whip this school-boy back to his home." 
In a few months all things were in order; an army had been 
gathered together and equipped ; the kingdom was well guarded ; 
the ships were in readiness to bear the soldiers of liberty to fields 
of war and destiny. 

On May 20, 1630, Gustavus appeared in the diet to bid the 
estates a solemn farewell. "Not lightly or wantonly," said he, 
"am I about to involve myself and you in this new and dangerous 
war. God is my witness that I do not fight to gratify my own 
ambition. But the emperor has wronged me most grievously in 
the persons of my ambassadors ; he has supported my enemies, 
persecuted my friends and brethren, and tramples my religion 
in the dust, and even stretches his arm against my crown. The 
oppressed states of Germany call loudly for aid, which by God's 
help we will give them. I am fully sensible of the dangers to 
which my life will be exposed. I have never yet shrunk from 
them; nor is it likely that I shall escape them all. Hitherto 
Providence has wonderfully protected me, but I shall fall at last 
in the defense of my country. For the prosperity of my subjects, 
absent and present, I offer my warmest prayers to heaven, and 
now bid you all a sincere, it may be a final and eternal, farewell." 



246 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

The ships were waiting in the harbor. Gustavus and his 
little army were moving to embark. The last words were spoken, 
the final farewells given, the final look into the faces of kindred 
countrymen taken, and hands were warmly pressed that would 
never grasp each other again, and eyes peered into eyes whose 
sight was closed forever ere another meeting came. The king 
and his veteran legions were all on board. The sails were hoisted, 
and well freighted ships stood out to sea. There had been vessels 
in the olden times trimmed and steered for foreign shores, bear- 
ing mighty armies to distant lands, and moving amid the dazzling 
pomp of Persian gold, but they carried no such precious freight 
as these Swedish ships bore on the bosom of a storm-tossed sea. 
Once the proud Armada of Spain skirted along the southern 
shores of Europe and swept defiantly toward the isle of the seas, 
the grandest maritime array on which the sun ever shone ; but 
the Armada was the minister of darkness, while the transports 
of Sweden carried the defenders of bleeding truth, the noblest 
army that ever trod the fields of war. It was a little band already 
tried and scarred in the bloody struggle for country and home 
but sixteen thousand strong, going to breast and roll back the tide 
of ruin which had swept over the neighboring kinsmen according 
to the flesh and faith, and to exalt before the nations the standard 
of liberty and right. They might have left their armor to hang 
and rust in the loft ; they might have kept their swords sheathed 
and laid them away as curious relics for their posterity; they 
themselves might have settled down to the pursuits of peace, and 
gone in quiet to sleep with their fathers, and their king might 
have sat on his throne now doubly firm, and ruled amid pleasures 
and the homage of a devoted, trustful people, departing at last 
like one who lays himself down to pleasant dreams. 

But they were true hearts, grand souls, that in their devotion 
to humanity went out beyond the narrow confines of their beloved 
land. They heard the piteous calls of suffering strangers for 
help. They saw the blazing fires of tyranny and wrong shooting 
up into the skies of Protestant states. They beheld from afar 
the untamed soldiers of a grasping empire trampling underfoot 
the dearest objects of earth and filling once happy lands with 



Gustavus Adolphus 247 

the wildest scenes of dismay and desolation. They loved their 
homes, their fatherland, their wintry skies, their icy streams and 
snow-clad hills ; but they loved the cause of right, the cause of 
conscience, of humanity and God — this they loved above all else. 
For this they answered once again to the bugle call of war. For 
this they came from mountain and field, from cottage and cabin, 
bade farewell to wife and children and friends and home to come 
back no more, and for this they were now on the sea borne by an 
angry wind to face the relentless foe of their inalienable rights. 
Grand souls, noblest spirits of their age of whom the world was 
and is not worthy — we bow in reverence to your lofty daring and 
sublime consecration to the great work of the ages. 

History tells us of a Spartan band that stood at Ther- 
mopylae against the myriad hosts of Persia, and there died for 
Grecian liberty, their deed enshrined in the world's admira- 
tion. But they were not so noble as ye. Their hearts swelled 
not with feelings so high and grand as do yours while sailing to 
the rescue of suffering Christian hope. Ye are men of truth, 
select spirits of our race, whose bosoms swell with love to God 
and man, and whose brawny arms are strong enough to wield the 
sword against the outrage of the times, and beat back the savage 
hordes of carnal might. 

We bid you all hail, valiant soldiers for the right, and say: 
"Go, invade the unholy despot's empire, storm his cities, conquer 
his strongholds, scale the highest ramparts of his empire, strike 
down the rude and blood-thirsty enemy of your rights and the 
freedom of mankind. March on, march on to victory ; the world 
looks on; the tortured bleeding millions of your brethren are 
crying from the depths of their woe, 'Come!' All heaven is 
shouting till the very pillars shake, 'Go ! save the cause of right.' " 

Ye winds that waft the ships of men on the high seas, be 
swift to move these noble ships across the deep. Ye storms that 
toss about the waves of oceans, and lash into fury the great 
waters, harm not those sails, nor break the timbers of those 
ships. They bear the heroes of the ages, the champions of the 
crushed and wounded souls, the defenders of destiny, the soldiers 
of the Cross. 



248 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

And thou rolling sea, whose waves mar alike the Armada's 
pride and the spoils of Trafalgar, deal kindly with these lofty- 
spirits committed to thy care; dash not to wreck this precious 
treasure of hope and light; bear up these freighted ships and 
bring them soon to the desired haven. They hold those mighty 
men whose deeds shall whiten thy wide expanse with the sails 
of peaceful commerce rather than deck it with the armaments 
of war. Be not treacherous, nor swallow up the liberties of a 
thousand years, but be obedient to Him who scooped out thy 
depths, and deliver on the farther shore this army of conscience 
and of God. 

On the 24th day of June, 1630, Gustavus landed on the 
southern shores of the Baltic Sea. Just one hundred years 
before this, the German princes, in the presence of Charles V, 
at Augsburg, made that celebrated Confession which served them 
as a rallying standard. The principles of the Confession were 
now endangered, and Gustavus hastened to their defense. It was 
a striking coincidence, a great anniversary. And when he re- 
called that glorious past, and thought of the undaunted courage, 
the immovable energy, the firm faith and deep piety of those 
heroic men, his zeal was inflamed and he himself inspired with 
confidence in the future. The thought of that solemn event in- 
fused into him a new life, and gave him a spirit of daring and 
enthusiasm which swept before it all enemies, and made him to 
be indeed the "Lion of the North." He took up the spade with 
his own hand, his whole army following his example, and in a 
little while the camp was fortified against the enemy. And the 
king, wishing to animate his soldiers and nerve them for the 
great campaign, addressed these words to them: "Do not be- 
lieve that I undertake this war for myself or my kingdom. We 
march to the relief of our oppressed brothers. You will by 
brilliant victories accomplish this generous glory. Be not afraid 
of the enemy whom you are going to meet. They are the same 
that you have already defeated in Prussia. Your gallantry has 
just forced Poland to conclude a truce of six years. If you 
show the same courage and perseverance now, you will procure 
for the Evangelical Church and for our German brethren the 
security and peace which they need." 



Gustavus Adolphus 249 

All things were now in readiness for the onward move. 
But what of the German princes whom the northern king had 
come to defend? Did they hasten to greet the noble Swede 
and welcome him to their prostrate land? Did they join hands 
and swear eternal allegiance to each other and unfaltering devo- 
tion to the cause of their fathers? Did they open wide the doors 
■of their kingdoms and bid Gustavus and his army enter? It is 
surprising that they did nothing of the kind. Instead of hailing 
him with shouts of joy, and rushing to embrace him in their 
arms of love, their tongues were silent, and not a soul of them 
bade him welcome to their shores. They shut the doors of their 
kingdoms against his march ; they stirred up difficulties ; they 
created troubles; they aroused suspicions; they played into the 
hands of the enemy; they stubbornly refused to join the great 
Swede in defending their homes and battling for the hope of the 
world. 

But amid all these rebuffs and discouragements Gustavus 
pressed on, never for an hour yielding to despondency, nor re- 
gretting that he had left his country to undertake the dangerous 
task of conquering the barbarous legions of Ferdinand. 

The imperial troops were pressed back from one fortress 
and then another, until in a few months two leading kingdoms 
were cleared of these destroyers. But still their princes refused 
to own Gustavus as their friend. They were animated by petty 
jealousy, and inclined to block his way. The people, on the 
other hand, hailed him as a savior, an angel sent from God for 
their relief, and gladly would have enlisted under his all-conquer- 
ing banner. But their rulers were selfish, jealous men, who 
would rather crouch before the emperor than stand up side by 
side with the valorous Swede in defense of German liberties. 

In the meantime an event occurred which seemed to forbode 
the final doom of every Protestant state in Germany. On the 
banks of the Elbe stood the fair city of Madgeburg. The 
historian tells us: "It had early become one of the chief cities 
of manufacture and trade; its riches had been won from the 
commerce of the south and east; its wealthy burghers lived in 
palaces and their coffers were stored with gems and gold ; its 
magnificent cathedral, its fine churches, its crowded streets, its 



250 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

busy people, had long awakened the envy of the dull and haughty 
nobles, and its vigorous Protestantism aroused the bitterest hatred 
of the Catholic League." 

Madgeburg, which had stood out against an empire, and had 
first risen in revolt against the imperial rule, was now to be made 
an example and a warning to Protestantism. Tilly surrounded 
it with his well-trained army, and demanded its submission, but 
the proud citizens refused to surrender, and waited in patience 
for their deliverer, Gustavus. But the king was detained. The 
electors of Brandenburg and Saxony refused to grant him per- 
mission to march through their dominions until the hour for help 
had passed; and Madgeburg fell. It was an awful day. The 
richest city in Germany was plundered and drenched in the 
blood of its inhabitants. The historian records that neither 
innocent childhood, nor helpless old age, neither youth, sex, rank 
nor beauty could quell the fury of the conquerors. Wives were 
abused in the arms of their husbands, daughters at the feet of 
their parents. No place, however obscure or sacred, escaped the 
rapacity of the enemy; children were thrown into the fire, and 
babes were stabbed on their mothers' breasts. Some of the offi- 
cers ventured to remind the proud conqueror that he might stop 
the reign of death. He answered : "Return in an hour. I will 
see what I can do. The soldier must have some reward for his 
danger and toils." 

The awful scene went on. The winds roared, the flames 
blazed up in the wildest fury everywhere, clouds of dense smoke 
hung like dark night over the doomed city ; heaps of dead bodies 
filled the streets, while the clash of swords and the crash of 
falling ruins made the tumult still more hideous. In a few hours 
this flourishing city was reduced to ashes, and 30,000 of its people 
slaughtered. 

And now all Germany was stirred, and Gustavus was blamed 
for not having saved the city from the destroyer. The weak- 
minded princes were at length brought to feel how uncertaiu 
was the throne on which they sat, and how likely it might be that 
their own cities would share the fate of Madgeburg. The earnest 
persuasion of a Christian soul had failed; the entreaties of one 



Gustavus Adolphus 251 

who had staked his own kingdom on the issues of their war 
were in vain. They were insensible to most tender appeals. 
Even when their people, despoiled of everything, and their wives 
and daughters, exposed to the violence of human beasts, cried 
out to them for refuge, they turned a deaf ear to these pitiful 
prayers and shut their eyes on scenes that ought to have awakened 
in them the resolute will to offer up their life, if need be, to 
avenge these horrid wrongs. But it needed more than the per- 
suasions of Gustavus and the mournful appeals of their subjects 
to arouse them from their jealousies and impel them to deny 
the mighty power of Ferdinand. It needed the ruin of the 
fairest city of Germany. It needed the butchery of helpless 
women and children to wake up these vain princes to a sense 
of their dangers, to realize that they were standing on the brink 
of ruin, and that the fires of the volcano were about to burst 
forth and consume their estates. 

Gustavus was now all the more busy. He watched his 
adversary with an eagle eye. Though his army was but 16,000 
strong, he marched to meet the imperial general, the invincible 
conqueror, the hero of a hundred battles. It was a moment of 
deep suspense. The liberties of Germany depended on the 
victory of the Swedish king. Few, however, believed that the 
contest would be favorable to freedom, or that the soldiers of 
the North would be able to resist for a moment the victorious 
legions of Tilly. The Catholic League were full of confidence 
in their favorite chief. The emperor looked to see the Snow 
King and his squadrons melt swiftly away before the invincible 
soldiers of Tilly. It was an hour of deep suspense. As the 
two armies drew nearer to one another, the interest deepened. 
The eyes of all Europe were fixed on the two great chieftains 
of the day, who were to determine its destiny for ages. At length 
the hour had come. 

The battlefield is chosen. It is the plain of Leipsic, the one 
on which Napoleon went down before the allied armies of 
Europe. On this plain the imperial army was drawn up, 35,000 
strong. About midday the battle begins. The cannon roar from 
the hostile lines. The army of Tilly is being decimated by 



252 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

Swedish balls. A charge is made upon the Saxon allies of Gus- 
tavus. They flee at once before the attack, and are soon no more 
on the field. And now the victorious Tilly and his heavy troops 
charge with shouts and yells on the little company of Swedes. 
They hurl back the heavy horsemen and practiced soldiers of 
Tilly. Again they form their lines and rush to the charge, and 
again they are beaten back. The charge is repeated seven times. 
The fine army of Tilly, which never had been conquered, melts 
slowly away. The field of Leipsic is strewn with the Austrian 
dead, while the remorseless Tilly is nonplussed by the genius of 
his antagonist, and is filled with shame as he feels that all Ger- 
many will soon ring with the news of his defeat. The Swedes 
now leap upon their foes and rout them from the field; and as 
the sun goes down the smitten enemy throw down their arms and 
flee in wild dismay. 

The day is won ; Gustavus takes his place as the first general 
of the age. Protestant princes and nobles now throng around 
his standard. He was the hero of the people, the idol of their 
hearts. His dauntless courage, his gracious manners, his win- 
ning words, his piety and faith, gained for him the love of the 
multitudes whom he had saved from ruin. 

He caught up the fruits of his great victory and quickly 
pressed forward until he had swept the imperialist general from 
the theatre of war, and was now far away in the south of Ger- 
many. Two years had not yet passed since he looked for the 
last time on the towers of Stockholm, and he had already subdued 
every enemy and threatened even Rome itself. The proud city 
trembled lest the heretical Goth might once more sweep over the 
Campanza with fire and sword. France was alarmed at his 
triumphant march ; and Vienna, the capital of the vast empire 
of Ferdinand, was within his grasp. It seemed as though he 
would soon sit on the throne of the Caesars, and be the first 
Protestant emperor. The house of Austria was thunderstruck. 
Its once victorious legions had been driven from the field of 
battle, and its ablest general had perished in the last battle. 
Tilly, the renowned, was dead. 



Gustavus Adolphus 253 

And now, what can the emperor do? That something de- 
cisive must be done was very clear. Gustavus was gaining power 
every day. The princes were giving him their hands in alliance, 
and the people were flocking to his standard. He had captivated 
the hearts of all Germany and won to his favor the noblest men 
of the age. The throne of Austria was tottering, the empire was 
dismembered, and the "Lion of the North" was the master of 
the scene. Something must be done. And what, pray, shall it 
be? Ah, the haughty Wallenstein, the man of the stars must be 
recalled. After much earnest entreaty, and an agreement which 
clothed him with almost imperial power, he sounds the bugle call. 
His old veterans hear the sound, and in a little while 40,000 men 
rally round his green banner. The struggle is renewed. There 
was again the old plunder and pillage and ruin. Wallenstein 
was still the same strange, mysterious man and relentless foe. 
He had not changed, neither had his hordes imbibed a better 
spirit. Gustavus hastened to the rescue. He had long declared 
that he would unearth Wallenstein; and the hour drew near. 
He swept with rapid marches through forest and town and over 
plain, and came upon his foe at Lutzen. For many months the 
eyes of all Europe were fixed on these rival chiefs. Of all who 
trod the fair fields of Germany, Wallenstein and Gustavus alone 
seemed worthy of attention. These mighty men had now met, 
and in one desperate battle were to decide the most vital question 
of their time, aye, the most vital question for the coming ages. 

There had been, in the course of the centuries, desperate 
conflicts, involving the rise of nations and the downfall of 
empires — mighty conflicts which brought millions of men on the 
field of blood, and whose captains were the most famous war- 
riors of the world. But the battle of Lutzen takes rank among 
the most formidable ever fought under the sun. It was not a 
struggle to gratify a vain ambition, nor for bare empire, but a 
conflict for principles, those eternal principles of right and truth 
which inhere in the constitution of man — the liberty of conscience 
and the freedom of man as a rational being, so dear to every 
human soul; principles for which our forefathers laid down 
their lives in the struggle for independence. These principles 
were the priceless issues at stake. 



254 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

And it was here, on this field of battle, that answer was to 
be given whether these principles should maintain supremacy, or 
whether the despotism of a papal hierarchy should prevail. 
Around Gustavus hovered the spirit of evangelical truth and the 
immortal good of the ages past. On his success rested the hopes 
of all the coming generations, of the freemen of the world, the 
existence of Protestantism and the better welfare of mankind. 

If Wallenstein should conquer, the world must linger for 
many a century under the gloom of the densest ignorance and 
the darkest superstition. Lutzen was the death grapple in modern 
times with the enemies of human progress ; on it hung the results 
that in their far-reaching effects would go down to the latest day. 

It was a cold November morning. A heavy mist hung over 
the armies camped on the plain. All through the night there was 
hurrying to and fro. Wallenstein's orderlies gathered in the 
distant outposts. Gustavus was seated in his coach awake, wait- 
ing for the appointed hour to begin the fight. The sun had risen 
in full view. The command was given, and then there was 
mounting in hot haste; the steed, the mustering squadron, and 
the clattering car went pouring forth with impetuous speed, 
swiftly forming in the ranks of war. 

Gustavus knelt in prayer, and his soldiers chanted the battle 
hymn composed by the king himself. He then mounted his horse. 
His infantry rushed on to the foe, shouting amid the roar of the 
cannon, "A mighty fortress is our God." Just then a body of 
cavalry stopped their advance. "Charge the black horsemen !" 
shouted Gustavus, and led his cavalry in the onset. But the 
smoke descended, his horsemen retired, he was left alone ; his 
arm was broken; he was wounded in the body; he fell to the 
ground ; the enemy rushed upon him, stripped his body, and 
pierced him with many wounds. Gustavus Adolphus was dead. 

"Soldier, rest, thy warfare o'er; 

Sleep the sleep that knows no waking; 
Dream of battlefields no more; 

Days of danger, nights of waking; 
Another hand thy sword shall wield, 

Another hand thy standard wave, 
Till from the trumpet's mouth is pealed 

The blast of triumph o'er thy grave." 



Gustavus Adolphus 255 

Gustavus was dead, but on pressed the noble Swedes. The 
hordes of Wallenstein give way. The soldiers of conscience rush 
on like the irresistible avalanche. They sweep before them the 
savage foe; they rout the serried ranks of desolation; they 
conquer, even though their great captain is dead on the field ; and 
Lutzen is the victory for liberty, humanity and God. 

Gustavus was indeed the hero of the age. His name was 
a ray of light to the oppressed of all nations. The lustre of his 
virtues dazzled even the great ones of the earth. The Pope 
recognized his power and said he was the greatest king in the 
world; and even Wallenstein declared: "It is well for him and 
me that he is gone ; the German empire does not require two 
such leaders." While Ferdinand, when he learned the fact of 
his death, shed tears, thus acknowledging the heroism of a 
mighty foe. 

Gustavus possessed the most brilliant qualities. He was a 
genius, and in the military sphere takes rank with the greatest 
captains of the world. Even Alexander, Caesar and Napoleon 
were not greater than he. As a statesman he had no superior in 
his day. More than a match was he for the crafty Richelieu. 
He was in the truest sense unselfish. He remained true to his 
mission. He fought for the eternal principles of right. He 
saved Protestantism. 

And if there is any man of the past two centuries to whom 
this age of ours owes the deepest gratitude, it is to him who died 
on the field of Lutzen, the hero of the Thirty Years' War. 

All honor to the noble Swede who died for freedom, human- 
ity and truth. The years shall not steal his praise. His deeds 
live on ; his works survive ; his memory shall still be green in 
the hearts of men when a thousand centuries shall have rolled 
around. On that bloody and fatal field he has reared for him- 
self a monument of heroism stronger than the hills, loftier than 
the Alps, and more enduring than the pillars of our globe. The 
cause for which he poured out his life went not down with him 
in the fight. It rose in mighty triumph over the scenes of that 
bloody day and has been marching onward through the centuries. 
It is here today, this same cause of conscience and right, pressing 



256 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

on through the ranks of our modern Tillys and Wallensteins, 
winning for itself fresh laurels in every conflict; and with ma- 
jestic stride is pushing forward to the conquest of the world. 

Some day the Author of this cause will call together the 
heroes of his truth for coronation, and among them will stand 
in loftiest bearing, Gustavus Adolphus, the hero of his age, the 
savior of Protestantism, the defender of the faith. 



V 
OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 



V 
OCCASIONAL ADDRESSES 



THE SUPREMACY OF THE MORAL 

An Address to a College Class 
My Young Friends: 

JT IS with unspeakable sadness that I rise to address you on 
this occasion. But I must turn from personal feelings, and 
enlist your attention in facts which pertain to the busy, struggling 
world of mankind. We are quite near the closing year of the 
nineteenth century — a century remarkable for radical change, 
unsurpassed progress, and superior attainment. The achieve- 
ments in politics, science and religion are the surprise of the 
whole world.* 

A third movement to which I wish to cite your attention is 
that of a better recognition of the supremacy of the moral. It is 
very gratifying that such is the fact. There have often been 
times in the past when moral obligation was hissed from the 
stage, and even quite recently, and perhaps to some extent even 
now, the sentiment obtains in some circles that might makes 
right. A vivid sense of moral principle seems to be lacking in 
many minds. Indeed, the idea has of late been quite current that 
fraud, dishonesty and corruption are entirely legitimate when 
they are successful. All this involves, of course, a low estimate 
of man. It in effect repudiates the truly moral, and reckons the 



*NOTE — Here a number of pages are missing from Dr. Ort's manu- 
script. This will account for the break in the thought. The reason for 
the "unspeakable sadness" referred to in the opening sentence of this 
address is nowhere indicated in Dr. Ort's manuscripts. — Editor. 



260 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

best motives for action to be those of sensuous gain. Under the 
impulse of such conviction men never do the right because it is 
right, but only from motives of expediency. Whenever selfish 
interest demands that the claims of righteousness be set aside, 
wrong is easily committed under the false notion that "whatever 
is, is right." But the human creature, that creature who has a 
moral nature just as surely as he has an intellectual and physical 
being, and who thereby is capacitated for something inexpress- 
ibly more than the highest possibilities of thought and extension, 
this human creature can never drift away from the truth of his 
being. He may imagine that he can, and for a while run a wild 
reckless career ; but by and by the more excellent element of his 
being will assert its supremacy, and demand submission to its 
righteous authority. For a while men may strangle and repress 
the moral, and even exclude it from their judgment and plans; 
they may, in a bold and positive manner, treat it with contempt, 
and maintain with a confident air that the sensuous and the 
perishable constitute man's highest good ; but at last the recogni- 
tion of moral principle, that principle which is independent of 
times and places and changes, and is eternal, will force its way 
into the rule of human conduct. 

It is to be observed that the high disputes and contests be- 
tween men have always been settled on moral grounds. The 
great conflicts of the ages have been moral conflicts. The great 
ideas for which men have battled to the death, and in whose 
interest they have expended treasures and life, have been moral 
ideas. Figure it as you may, the ethical, with its eternal principles 
of the good and the right, evermore shows itself to be lord in the 
realm of human experience and human history. 

Hence, it is not surprising that now, in spite of the deter- 
mined effort to relegate the claims of morality and obligation 
to the rear, there should again be manifest the disposition to view 
the questions of practical concern in the light of the principles 
of moral truth. So it is. As evidence, I simply refer you to 
the fact that earnest and vigorous discussion of the ethical is in 
progress. This discussion is being conducted vigorously and per- 
sistently by men of thoughtful temper. The attention of the 



The Supremacy of the Moral 261 

public is being called away from matters of sheer material or 
intellectual concern to that wider realm of abiding realities and 
to those unchangeable principles of righteousness which have 
their foundation in the constitution of moral being. A few years 
ago we heard only of the natural. Men thought and talked only 
about what we can see and handle. The highest good was said 
to be in a nature of things, and the laws which govern men and 
their ways, the laws of the natural world. 

But all this has changed. A different view is beginning to 
find expression. Thoughtful minds are showing a lively interest 
in a greater subject than the world, and by their earnest expres- 
sion are enlisting the attention of the public in the graver 
questions of moral right, moral obligation, man's duty to society, 
to the state, to his fellowmen, and to God. This clearly indicates 
the trend of a movement whose influence will be felt as a mighty 
moral power amidst all the relations of human life. The coming 
issues will undoubtedly be moral questions. The basis for the 
settlement of the disagreements among men, the disturbances in 
the industrial world, and the correction of evils, social and 
political, will be moral principle. On no other ground can a 
righteous adjustment be made, and the highest welfare of the 
people in all their varied associations be conserved. On this 
foundation alone can right prevail, and the greatest good be 
assured to all. Never despair of the final outcome of this world. 
Wrong, it is true, at times is very daring and vaunts itself amaz- 
ingly, but right is imperishable. It may for a while be pushed 
into the background, or be put down, and the forces of evil sport 
themselves in high glee before a dazed humanity; but be not 
dismayed; conscience can never be killed. Sometime, somehow, 
somewhere, it will rise up and come forth with old-time energy, 
and clear the stage of human action for holier scenes and better. 
It will again ascend the throne, and wield the sceptre of a 
righteous dominion over the heart of man, over his life, over the 
history he makes. It will reign with undisputed sway. It will 
sit supreme over the deliberations of men in their social gather- 
ings, over their dealings with one another, in their halls of legis- 
lation, in their administrations of government, and in all the 
works which they do. It will be the king. 



262 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

Men may laugh at the mere mention of moral principle ; they 
may sneer and ridicule ; they may connive at moral wrong and cor- 
ruption, and for a few dollars barter away justice, corrupt and 
debauch the public mind, and familiarize the people, especially 
the youth, with vice and crime; but the human conscience will 
reassert its righteous demands, and in the exercise of its God- 
given authority vindicate the eternal principles of righteousness, 
and arouse men everywhere to battle against the foes of honor, 
integrity, justice and purity. 

Again the moral is moving to the front. Its firm and 
heavy tread is awakening the drowsy, sleepy multitudes. It is 
calling them to action, to high, noble, godlike action. Be not 
impatient, nor think that there is no hope for a better day. The 
forces of wrong, now rampant, cannot always prevail. The true, 
the good, the right are not dead. They will yet stand in the 
foreground of human action, and show themselves master over 
the kingdom of man. Only be true to what you are. You have 
conscience, an enlightened conscience. Follow its guide, obey its 
dictates, dwell in its light. Always do the right. No matter 
where you are, under whatsoever circumstances, do the right, 
even though the heavens fall. Do the right, because it is the 
right. Fling policy to the winds, and evermore act like creatures 
who wear the moral image of their Great Original. Keep down 
the selfish feeling, that little, miserable, contemptible spirit of 
selfishness which is behind so much that curses the world. Keep 
this down, and love thy neighbor as thyself. Live to make others 
happier and better. Put yourselves in heartiest sympathy and 
co-operation with charity, that charity "which suffereth long and 
is kind, which vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not 
behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily pro- 
voked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth 
in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all 
things, endureth all things." 

This is the life you ought to live. May that God, who has 
kept you unto this day, keep guard over you in the coming years, 
and guide you with His eye. 



WHY YOU ARE HERE 

An Address at the Opening of the Seminary Year 
My Young Friends: 

MY desire today is to speak to you relative to your life in 
this divinity school. What should that life be? 

For one thing it should mean intense application to study. 
To make use of a colloquialism, there is study and there is study. 
However, that only is deserving the name which is characterized 
by undivided attention of the mind to the subjects offered for 
examination and thought ; and not only undivided, but prolonged, 
constant application of the knowing powers. Without this, no 
real, serviceable attainments in knowledge can be made. Under- 
stand, you are here not merely to have minds crammed with a 
lot of information and learning, and then to be sent out to deliver 
it to the people from week to week in small quantities until the 
stock is exhausted. You are not barrels to be filled. You are 
young men with rational minds. You are not machines. While 
it is true that in the acquisition of knowledge you are to be more 
or less passive, it must never be overlooked that in the appropria- 
tion of knowledge you must be intensely active. 

Knowledge, whatever its character, is serviceable to you 
only in so far as you make it over. This you do, first, by getting 
a clear understanding of it, and, second, by putting it in the 
mould of your own thought. Then it is no longer mine nor that 
of my colleagues. It is positively yours, and is easily and always 
at your service. 

All this means that, in the getting of knowledge, you must 
be persistently and intensely active in the exercise of your intel- 
lectual powers. The instruction of your professors may in 
itself be considered valuable, but it will prove to be of no special 
value to you until you have thought it over and through for your- 



264 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

selves and thus made it your own possession in the truest and 
highest sense. It will not be enough for you at last to be able 
to recite what men of the past have thought, or men of the 
present think, but you must be able to tell your fellowmen what 
you think, what you know concerning the great and enduring 
themes of Sacred Scripture. 

Bear in mind that you are here to make theologians of your- 
selves, and this you can do only by hard study. Perhaps it has 
been hinted to you by some men out in the field that a minister 
does not need to be a theologian in order to be a successful 
preacher. They may have told you that it is altogether proper 
for the schools, but has little place in the pulpit. It may have 
been suggested to you by someone that a course in a Theological 
Seminary is chiefly useful for the examination and licensure or 
ordination, but beyond that it is of little service. And still 
further, you may have been told that much of . what is studied 
in the Seminary is of little account; then, as evidence, blandly 
say, "Since my departure from these divinity halls, I never opened 
my Hebrew Bible, my Greek Testament, my Church History or 
Dogmatics. What the people want is the simple Gospel and not 
theology. I want you to know that this is what I give my people 
— the simple Gospel." And no doubt this is true, as is evidenced 
by his frequent flitting from pastorate to pastorate. 

I said that you are here to make theologians of yourselves. 
I say this because it is the only way by which you can fitly 
qualify yourselves to be competent ministers of the Word. In this 
connection I cannot refrain from quoting an observation from 
Dr. Henry B. Smith, one of the nation's greatest theologians. 
He is speaking of the matter to which I have referred. First, 
quoting the Apostle in his charge to Timothy, "Meditate on these 
things, give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear 
to all," Dr. Smith continues: "The Christian minister is called 
to the very highest position as respects the solid essential of 
teaching the human race. He must keep the highest place, or he 
will not be able to keep any. And he can keep that place only 
as he grasps the all-commanding subject which he is set to teach. 
He must be a theologian or he will be nothing. Christian the- 



Why You Are Here 265 

ology is the science of divine things, and it cannot be mastered 
without profound study by day and by night. A minister is 
bound to study this science. If he does not, there will come 
times when sagacious men will say: 'His profession is but a 
name; he is not fit for a crisis; he cannot answer an objection; 
he does not really understand what he is preaching about;' and 
they will go to someone else in important cases and questions 
when they need the best advice. Whether a man has really 
mastered his profession or not, will soon be found out. Some 
ministers are not very eloquent or social — they may be even shy 
and awkward, and those who go to Church for the sake of 
sensations may call them tedious; but there they stand, year in 
and year out, for half a century. They have mastered their work, 
and men honor them for it. When a solid piece of work is to be 
done, they do it. When time demands leaders, the very instinct 
of the Church turns to them, and turns away from mere sensa- 
tional preachers, who amuse vain and giddy people by talking 
against the clear, sharp, scientific statements of the doctrines of 
our faith." 

Do not understand me to say that you should leave the Semi- 
nary finished theologians. By no means. This is not possible. But 
you are to make a beginning, to lay the foundation deep and 
solid, and then in after years to prosecute the work of building 
on this foundation an enduring superstructure, which will be the 
development of Christian doctrine in your own thought. 

For the accomplishment of this work, you will ever need 
to employ as helps the studies in the curriculum of a theological 
seminary. 

But, specifically speaking, you are here to make of your- 
selves Lutheran theologians. This means that you must be 
industriously active in the study of the teachings of your own 
Church, so that you will be able to defend the faith of your 
Church and to teach the people correctly the Lutheran conception 
of saving truth, as the most Scriptural view of the Gospel of 
Jesus Christ. 

Again, you should be intensely studious because of the 
present-day state of religious thinking. The very bulwarks of 



266 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

the Christian faith are being assailed; the foundation of the 
Gospel is being undermined; a new Christianity, destitute of 
the fundamental truths of the religion of Peter and Paul, is now 
being delivered to the world under the authority of the so-called 
advanced scholarship of the age. With the liberalism of the 
day you must thoroughly acquaint yourselves in all its bearings, 
and at the same time you must thoroughly familiarize yourselves 
with the grounds of orthodox belief, and with the belief itself. 
All this will require long and patient study, investigation and 
research. 

But for this you are here. This is now your business. Side 
affairs must be kept entirely subordinate. One thing you are 
now to do, and that is study, study. The Church that needs you, 
the age that is bewildered in a fog of uncertainty, alike appeal 
to you as candidates for the ministry of reconciliation, to be 
diligent, faithful, earnest in your preparation that you may be 
workmen who need not be ashamed, and who will rightly teach the 
truth which the people need to know. 

Again, your life in the seminary should be a life of spiritual 
growth. The true theologian must be a Christian man. The 
truth with which he deals is Christian truth. The deep and 
certain apprehension of this truth can be gained only through 
the enlightening presence of the Holy Spirit, whose power be- 
comes more largely manifest as we grow in grace and in the 
knowledge of God. 

Further, spiritual growth means the getting of more power 
which is not of man, nor by man, but by the Spirit of God. 
This, no doubt, is what you want. I am sure it is what you need 
— the power that is to be found only in the life of Christ in you. 
Mere intellectual understanding may be sufficient for the world 
and worldly affairs, but it will not prove sufficient in the great 
work of the Kingdom of God in which you propose to be en- 
gaged. It is the power of Christ, the power of His Spirit, the 
power which the Christian who is much in communion with God 
possesses ; that you need, and will need of its fullness more and 
more. While you attend to the development of your brain power, 
and the getting of understanding, you can in nowise afford to 



Why You Are Here 267 

neglect your hearts. Here, at last, is the seat of strength and 
power both with God and man. These you must have if you 
would make full proof of your ministry. 

While, therefore, on the one hand, you devote yourselves to 
intellectual pursuit, be sure also to attend most carefully to the 
development of your spiritual energies, in order that you may 
indeed be men of God and be able to wield a power of which 
the natural man is altogether destitute. This means that you 
will daily spend some time in private devotion. Be much in 
company with your Lord and Savior. Yes, pray without ceasing, 
and meditate much on the great and precious teachings of the 
Gospel. Thus will you come to have more and more the mind of 
Christ and the fullness of His life. This will be to you an ever 
increasing power, a power that is influential with God and over 
men. This possession you certainly need to be truly great 
preachers of the Gospel of the Lord. For this reason I declare 
that your student life in the Seminary should be eminently 
characterized by spiritual growth. 

In this connection I must remark that your life here should 
be marked by unreserved consecration of yourselves, your 
energies, your strength, your all, to the calling of your choice, 
the ministry of the Gospel. Be assured that in no calling can the 
divided man be successful. In that of the ministry this is 
especially true. The getting of all of yourselves wholly into the 
Gospel ministry, so that when you go out from these halls you 
will be men for God in the highest sense, is of chief est importance. 
You should know nothing save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 
You dare not be entangled with the affairs of this life. The 
enlistment of your whole life in the ministerial vocation should 
begin now, and be continued throughout your Seminary course, 
so that, when you enter on the practice of its duties, you will 
have only one mind — that of being true ambassadors of Jesus 
Christ. 

Finally, be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving. 
Avoid the mere thought of being discourteous, unfriendly or hurt- 
ful to any of your fellow-students. Ever seek one another's good. 
Help one another. Never seek to advance your individual 



268 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

interest at the expense of your Christian brother, and this, too, 
with the hypocritical pretense that you are working for the Lord 
and His Church. 

Be true Christian men in all your relations here, active in 
some good work, striving constantly in every possible way to 
school yourselves for the greatest calling in human life. Aim 
to be examples of noble Christian living to all with whom you 
come in contact, and before the student body of this institution. 
Show yourselves at all times and everywhere to be men who 
walk with God. 

By so doing you will make your student life in this Seminary 
of priceless value to yourselves, and will come to the practice of 
your calling equipped in every way to prove yourselves workmen 
who need not be ashamed. May the God and Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ bestow on you abundantly His grace! 



YOUR LIFE PLAN 

An Address at the Opening of the Seminary Year 
My Young Friends: 

WE have great reason for devout thankfulness to Almighty 
God. Through His favoring grace we are in this place, 
this school of the prophets. Some of you are here for the first 
time, others in continuance of a course of study previously begun. 
All of you are enlisted in the same cause, and purpose doing the 
same great and precious work. 

It falls to my lot to address you on the occasion of the 
opening of this Seminary year. In the performance of my duty 
I shall aim to direct your serious attention to a very practical, 
and for you a most vital, matter. 

Before doing so, however, I wish to make an observation 
or two on the aspects of religious thought and belief which are 
current in our time. It is with the religious that we have espec- 
ially to deal in this school. Our investigations are of the the- 
ological order. We have a positive and well-defined view of 
Scripture teaching, in perfect harmony with the Confession of 
the Evangelical Church of the centuries, and in strict accord with 
the apprehension of the Divine Word maintained by the Church 
of the Reformation. This view it is our business as teachers 
to exhibit to you, while it is your duty, under the advantages 
offered, to acquire a sound and thorough knowledge of the body 
of doctrine which it embraces. At the same time we would have 
you know what is the drift of religious thought and belief 
characteristic of the age in which you live. 

We hear much in these days about the Church having lost 
her power and commanding position ; that she has sunk into a 
state of decadence ; that the old Christianity has been supplanted 
by a new Gospel, and that the religion of the fathers has been 



270 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

outlived. We have reached an age of new realities, an age of 
broadcast learning, advanced scholarship, scientific and literary 
culture. The old is worn out, no longer serviceable, narrow, 
inconsistent with the wisdom of this late age. There must be 
new bottles for the new wine ; that is, traditional Christian doc- 
trine both as to form and content must be set aside. A revision of 
religious belief is demanded by the intelligence of the day. Up- 
to-date statements of Christian doctrine are required by present- 
day progress and development. The new age must have a new 
religion — new especially in this, that it either minimizes the real 
presence of the supernatural and miraculous in the life and 
history of man, or, which is perhaps nearer the truth, disallows 
this presence altogether. 

The theory of naturalism, which is to the effect that all 
realities in the religious as well as in the secular sphere are 
explainable only in the light of the operations of natural energy 
— this theory assails the fundamentals of the Christian religion, 
such as the existence of a personal, triune God, the incarnation, 
the vicarious atonement, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 
In fact, naturalism, in its last analysis, rejects entirely Christianity 
as a supernatural religion, a revelation of the eternal, personal 
God in the reality of His being and in His relation to the universe. 
While it has appeared in times past as idealistic pantheism, and 
now assumes in popular way the form of materialistic pantheism, 
still, in the end, it is to be known simply as pantheism, which 
repudiates the substantial reality of both matter and spirit, 
teaches that God is the infinite nothing, and that the universe is 
this deity in process of an eternal evolution. Its fundamental 
error consists in this, that it positively rejects all real distinction 
between God and the universe. It has no place in its scheme 
for eternal personality. This it claims is a limitation, hence 
inconsistent with the idea of the Absolute. The God of Panthe- 
ism is, therefore, neither eternally self-conscious nor self-de- 
termining. It is the impersonal, and in all its movements is 
constrained by the law of necessity. 

This doctrine of an impersonal God is showing its influence 
in some tendencies of the present day, manifest in the social 



Your Life Plan 271 

and industrial spheres. It is obvious that just now individual 
personality is much belittled, and often ignored. 

If you ask "Why?" a true answer can be found in the 
teachings of present-day naturalism, which knows no personal 
God, and hence has no proper conception of the personality of 
the individual man. Pantheism is religious, even devoutly so. 
Nevertheless, it is anti-Christian. In the final analysis there 
are found only two systems of religious belief, Pantheism and 
Christianity. 

Again, we often hear the cry, "Back to Christ." This im- 
plies that in the course of religious thought there has been a 
wandering away from Christian truth. There needs to be a 
return to the original teaching. We must betake ourselves to 
Christ. We must abandon the exhibitions of Christian doctrines 
by Christian minds of the past centuries as misleading, unfaithful, 
a mixture of philosophy and religion. All confessions and creeds 
must be laid aside ; all developments of Christian doctrine, all 
theologies, even the doctrinal discussions of Paul must be passed 
by. Religion and philosophy must be divorced; theology and 
metaphysics separated. In short, the Christian mind must begin 
anew by going back to Christ, and then, by a most careful ex- 
clusion of all elements pertaining to the human reason, develop 
a system of Christian doctrine which will exhibit the principles 
of Christianity in perfect purity. 

This is the theory advanced by Ritschl, Herrmann and others. 
It is known as the Neo-Kantian movement in the theology of 
the nineteenth century. It is from this movement that so much 
harsh criticism of the old theology has arisen. It has gone out 
from Germany to the thinking world. In this country it has 
taken on the form of what is known as liberalism. 

It should be said that, notwithstanding the severe censure 
which advocates of this new theology lay on Christian dogma, 
because, as is charged, of its philosophical cast; yet their ex- 
hibitions of the teachings of the Word of God are remarkable 
in that they proceed from the metaphysical view-point. They 
have by no means succeeded in avoiding the very fault which 
they charge against the theology of the Church. Christian 



272 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

thought must have forms of expression. These forms must come 
from the source of all forms of expressions for man, the human 
reason. Reason furnishes the forms ; the revelation of God in 
Jesus Christ the content for these forms, so far as Christian 
theology is concerned. Just as the revelation of God in nature 
furnishes the content for natural theology. 

Once more, we hear much in our day about criticism of the 
Bible. "Higher Criticism" it is called. By this is meant historic, 
literary criticism as distinguished from lower criticism. Higher 
criticism raises the questions : "Who wrote the books of the 
Bible? Are they compilations, revisions, or redactions of pre- 
existing documents ? Is the traditional view concerning the for- 
mation of the Sacred Scriptures correct? Was the Pentateuch 
produced in the time of Moses and under his supervision ? Were 
there two Isaiahs? Is the book of Jonah a record of fact? Is 
the Genesis account of Creation, the temptation in the Garden, 
the flood, real history or mere myth? Was there an individual 
man called Abraham? What is to be done with the disagree- 
ments in the historical books of the Bible? In short, is not the 
Old Testament a late production, appearing, as we now have it, 
about two hundred and fifty years before Christ, and edited from 
documents of various sources, many of them setting forth crude 
religious ideas of peoples long ago extinct? Is it not, after all, 
a human book containing some truth, divine truth, but mixed 
with much error, historical, ethical and religious ?" 

These are the questions about which Higher Criticism con- 
cerns itself, and which, in the extreme form, it answers in such 
a way as to lead to the conclusion that the Bible must be rejected 
as the record of divine revelation given by inspiration. It is, in 
fact, an application of the theory of naturalism to the formation 
of the Sacred Scriptures. 

The results of conservative Higher Criticism are not de- 
structive, but are consistent with the belief of the Church of all 
ages, that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are 
the Word of God. I have mentioned these theories and move- 
ments in the theological world so that I might say to you as 
divinity students that you owe it to yourselves, and to the Church 



Your Life Plan 273 

whose ministers you propose to be, to study and investigate 
thoroughly these theories and movements in your time, in all 
their bearings, so that you may have a clear understanding of 
them in their nature and in their tendencies, and thus become 
immovably grounded in the conviction of the evangelical and 
orthodox faith, that the Holy Bible is not the work of man, but 
in deed and in truth the Word of God. 

This, I take it, is the true view. The individuality and 
freedom of the inspired writers were not set aside, but were 
maintained in their integrity, and therefore the production of 
these Scriptures occurred through the union of the natural and 
the supernatural, the divine and the human. Properly speaking, 
the Bible is a divine-human book, giving us infallibly the revela- 
tion of eternal love for the redemption of the human race, lost 
and perishing in sin. In this connection you should firmly and 
intelligently establish yourselves, so that when the winds of con- 
trary doctrine blow around and against you, you may not be 
torn from the safe moorings of evangelical belief and set adrift 
on the sea of doubt, if not of downright unbelief, which, un- 
fortunately, has been the case with not a few persons of our time. 
If you cannot go out from this Seminary with the clear con- 
viction that our Scriptures are the divinely inspired Word of 
God ; if you should have misgivings on this point and be inclined 
to lean toward the liberalism of the day, then I must say to you, 
"Halt ! Don't go that way !" It will only be another case of 
the blind leading the blind, and both will fall into the ditch. 

By what authority can you speak words of life to those 
who are without life? If only by human wisdom, your teaching 
and preaching will only be that of vain philosophy, which begins 
in doubt, moves in doubt, and passes away in doubt. 

And now, my young friends, I pass on to say a few words 
on a subject which concerns you in a very special way. You 
are now in the Theological Seminary. You are certainly here 
by force of very high reason. It is to be presumed that you 
have a positive and well defined end in view ; that you have 
made a far-reaching decision ; that you have formed a life plan, 
and that this plan is the Gospel ministry. It is not to be thought 



274 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

that you are still in doubt as to your life work, or that you have 
come here to see how you might enjoy the ministerial profession, 
should you finally determine to make this the pursuit of your 
life, or that you have only decided to be ministers of the Word 
provided nothing else more inviting and promising greater 
worldly comfort be available. We are not to believe that you 
have no deep and abiding conviction on this matter, but have a 
settled purpose to preach the Gospel, and that this purpose you 
propose to maintain against all the beguiling offers of this world 
and the persuasions of the natural man. 

I must say that you have chosen wisely and well. The 
Gospel ministry has its distinctive characteristics. It is a divine 
calling. It is not of man, but of God. It is, in a specific sense, 
the high calling of God. It has to do with the highest, truest, 
and most enduring relation, namely, union with God in Christ, 
brought about through the mediatorial work of the Son of God, 
and realized in the human soul by the operations of divine grace. 
It is the ministry of reconciliation between heaven and earth. 
No other calling is equal to it. It is pre-eminent. And this 
calling you have made your life plan. Noblest choice! Most 
fortunate election! Thereby you have placed yourselves in a 
sphere far above sheer secular pursuit, and devoted the powers 
of your life to the most sacred work possible among men. 

The successful execution of this plan, this is the matter of 
chief est moment with you. How can it be accomplished? 

I answer, first, by making this plan, in the highest sense, 
the growing purpose of your whole life. All else must be held 
subordinate. No matter what worldly disadvantages may occur 
in your history, what self denials and sacrifices may be ex- 
perienced, what difficulties and discouragements may confront 
you, do not be daunted or turned aside. Remember that your 
life plan, young men, can never be realized except as you make 
it the growing purpose of all your activities. 

And this brings me to say, for another thing, that the suc- 
cessful execution of your life plan depends on the most diligent, 
careful and comprehensive preparation of head and heart. The 
first is secured by study, faithful, persistent study, extensive 



Your Life Plan 275 

reading and sincere thought; or, briefly, attention to thinking. 
The second, namely, preparation of heart, is secured by constant 
reading of the Scriptures, sacred meditation, and daily com- 
munion with God. Power is the possession you need successfully 
to carry out your life choice — intellectual power supported 
and enlivened by spiritual power. With such preparation you 
can hope to achieve both joy and success in your chosen calling.* 

And now let us entreat you to cherish a firm purpose to 
remain settled in the Gospel ministry, and permit no worldly 
temptations to draw you from it. Some men have entered this 
vocation, but soon have become weary in well doing. The world 
has stolen their hearts, and chilled their interest in divine things ; 
and so, because of a desire to gain and hoard the goods of time, 
their life plan of the Gospel ministry was given up. Sad to 
say, it ceased to be the governing purpose of their life ; perhaps 
chiefly for the reason that it never in the truest sense was made 
their governing purpose. It was, after all, only a desultory 
resolution, and a desultory volition never wins the most enduring 
success. 

Be assured, young men, if you prosecute the calling of the 
Gospel ministry with zeal and devotion, you will not fail, but 
will, on the contrary, achieve a success which will be a blessing 
to many precious souls, and an abiding joy to your own heart. 
■Be ambitious above everything else to make of yourselves min- 
isters of Christ, who "need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the 
Word of truth." 



*At this point, a portion of the manuscript is missing, and so, as 
best we could, we have had to supply the hiatus, which runs to the word 
"interest" in the next paragraph. — Editor. 



CURRENT THOUGHT— SCIENTIFIC 
AND ETHICAL 

An Annual Address Before the Ohio Teachers' Association 

Ladies and Gentlemen: 

MY subject this evening is, "Current Thought, Scientific and 
Ethical." I deem it wise that we as students and edu- 
cators should have a clear understanding of the prevailing thought 
of our time. There is no other idea that enters so largely into 
the thinking and living of the present. It engages the attention 
of the theologian, the lawyer, the physician, the teacher, and 
shapes the convictions of the general reader. It is expounded 
in text-books, discussed in magazines, preached from the rostrum, 
taught in the school-room. It is the index of the times ; the 
sample of that lively, bustling spirit which marks the age. It 
is the mighty power which stirs the energies of men into play, 
builds the factory, makes the machine, rushes commerce over 
the land and across the sea, opens to our sight the treasures of 
the earth and reveals the wonders of space. 

The thought of today stands out distinct from the thought 
of any preceding age. This distinction, however, is not grounded 
on a difference in the questions handled. In all periods of the 
world's history human thought has been concerned about the 
same great inquiries. Long ago men worried their brains pre- 
cisely as they are doing now with the queries, "Whence ? What ? 
Whither?" While every age has its own peculiar thought, still 
the diversity is not so much in the questions to be solved as in 
the methods used and the solutions proposed. On the one hand, 
the subjects are the same; on the other, the ways of viewing 
them are diverse, the one class being speculative, the other largely 
experimental. 



Current Thought — Scientific and Ethical 277 

Two points claim attention: First, the aim of current 
thought; second, its tendency. 

In the outset of my remarks it may be proper to state that I 
mean to look at the thought of today as a whole rather than 
discuss its several departments in detail. If you wished to 
ascertain the outline of the North American continent and its bear- 
ings, the readiest mode of study would be by means of a terres- 
trial globe, on which at a glance could be seen the figure of all 
lands and seas and their several relations. But if you desired to 
acquaint yourself with the geography of Ohio, then, instead of a 
globe, a map would be the most serviceable to use. Since it is not 
any special state of knowledge, but the whole continent that I 
desire to present to view, attention is called not to any particular 
field, but to the entire territory known as the science of nature. 

The world around us, of which we form a part, has always 
been an object of interest to the human mind. Even in the 
earliest ages man looked upon nature with the deepest concern. 
He realized himself to be in the midst of an abiding presence. 
Beyond its scope he found it impossible to go, and soon learned 
that with its forces he must constantly grapple. Thus situated, 
one might suppose that he would speedily inform himself with 
respect to the character of the company amid which he had been 
placed, and, in a great measure at least, make it obedient to his 
will. On the contrary, however, he seems to have been content 
with a mere superficial knowledge of things, and at the same 
time to think of nature as the profound mystery whose secrets 
are to be learned by the gods and not by men. Natural 
knowledge, consequently, during the remote ages never advanced 
beyond the ruder stage of intellectual acquirements. Whatever 
inquiries were started or attempts were made to possess the 
better understanding of the more familiar facts, yet mans 
acquaintance with the elements of things and the laws of their 
ongoing continued as of old, the same simple, narrow, childish 
knowledge of the natural world. Forced to give some heed to 
the objects with which he came in daily contact, and on which 
he was dependent for the extension of his life, still, rather than 
take them in hand, penetrate them, or break them in pieces, to 



278 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

learn somewhat of their real constitution, he chose to keep aloof 
as far as possible from them, scarcely venturing even to lay his 
fingers on these ever-present and interesting objects. Instead 
of appearing to him like a mighty object or instrument over 
which he should learn to play the master, nature, in his vision, 
seemed a great sanctuary, sacred to the immortals, and forbidden 
to human touch; where all must walk with uncovered heads, 
and reverently listen to its oracles. Content with enough to eat 
and wear, he went on in his usual way, amusing himself with 
the creation of an ideal world, passing his time with empty dis- 
cussions of what might be, or trying to settle the great questions 
of human life by the invention of various philosophies. 

Different schools, in course of time, came into existence, 
each aiming to answer the earnest inquiries of the human soul, 
and professing to tell man how he should live, and what sort of 
intercourse he should hold with the surrounding world. Amid 
the conflict of opinions, nature still passed before the gaze of 
men, the same mysterious something it had been to the race in 
its infancy. Bald abstractions became the incessant rage. Men 
thought long and hard ; they reasoned boldly and well, and yet 
man was forced to jog on, just as his fathers for ages before 
had done. Nature still held firmly in her grasp the secrets 
whose possession would enable man to take the strides of a giant, 
and use these wild unbridled forces as swiftest steeds to bear 
him up the slopes of progress, even to the most commanding 
heights. 

The scientific investigations of olden times designed the 
construction of a universe according to abstract ideas, and in this 
way proposed to determine what nature is. But the philosophers 
understood as little about the great universe around them after 
their prodigious work was completed as when they began. The 
world with which they had made themselves familiar was not 
the active, real world, against which we knock at every step. 

Thus, while the thinking of the Middle Ages was not abso- 
lutely empty, and has worked results in the domain of truth 
that are valuable, still it has failed as a system of thought to 
enlarge and improve the sphere of natural knowledge. It re- 



Current Thought — Scientific and Ethical 279 

mained for the new philosophy which has explained it as we 
have it today, to call back the minds of men from their ex- 
cursions into the territory of speculation, and instruct them to 
explore the vast, fruitful field of nature. This new philosophy 
differs from the old in the manner by which it proposes to enlarge 
man's knowledge of the natural world. The old philosophy con- 
tented itself with the handling of abstract propositions. These 
it tossed about much as the juggler does his balls, or used them 
as one would use bits of glass in a kaleidoscope, merely to show 
how many combinations in different shapes can be made. 

But the new philosophy, instead of trying to squeeze some 
knowledge out of mental gymnastics, goes down into the natural, 
takes up one fact and then another, makes special note of the 
phenomena in their constant flow, pries into the reason for things, 
and seeks to ascertain their most intricate relations. The key 
which it employs to unlock the doors that shut in the secrets 
of nature is not some fine abstraction, but a process at once plain 
and readily put into use. It seizes a fact and proceeds to divide 
it into its parts. There is no doubt that, even without the aid 
of analysis, the mind may know a fact, but its knowledge of 
this could only be a knowledge of something which is, in short, 
a knowledge of bare existence. What the fact is in itself, its 
inner nature, whether simple or complex, and what its elements 
— all such knowledge would yet be outside of its possession. 
Only after the fact in hand is cleaved asunder and revealed in 
its constituent elements, does the mind know, not simply that 
the fact is, but what it is. This latter kind of knowledge, then, 
is knowledge additional to that previously possessed — a veritable 
insight into the make-up of something which actually is. The 
new philosophy, therefore, moving along the highways of 
observation and experiment by means of analysis, reveals to man 
a fund of knowledge of which he has been much in need, and 
whereby he can go forward from consequent to consequent, until 
he shall have gained an actual supremacy over the natural powers. 
At the same time it acquaints him, not only with the constitution 
of facts, but also with their several relations ; shows how one is 
dependent on the other; how one issues from the other; why 



280 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

one precedes and another follows; according to what laws the 
ceaseless changes in nature are going on, the planets move, the 
tides have their ceaseless ebb and flow, shadows cross the sun 
and moon, and a thousand other movements in the outer world. 
It seeks to trace phenomena to their sources, and thus determine 
what are the efficient agents which move the vast and com- 
plicated machinery of the globe. 

The new philosophy, it can at once be perceived, opens to 
the human mind a fresh track of research and investigation, and 
familiarizes man, in a more satisfactory and useful way, with 
the world in which he moves. It suggests to him the superior 
wisdom of first grasping the particular, and then ascending to the 
general; first resolving the mechanism of the universe into the 
varied parts and then fitting them together, thus exposing the 
great principles and mighty forces by which the Master Architect 
shapes and manages the kingdom of matter. 

Another has fitly said: "Whether it be a consequence of 
long-continued development, or an endowment conferred once 
for all on man at his creation, we find him gifted with a mind 
curious to know the causes of things, and surrounded by objects 
which excite the questionings and raise the desire for an ex- 
planation." 

It is related of a young prince of one of the Pacific islands 
that, when he first saw himself in a looking glass, he ran around 
the glass to see at whom he was looking. So it is with the 
human intellect in general as regards the phenomena of an ex- 
ternal world. It wishes to get behind and learn the causes and 
connections of these phenomena. What is the sun? What is 
the earth? What should we see if we came to the edge of the 
earth and looked over? What is the meaning of thunder and 
lightning, of hail, rain and snow? These and a thousand other 
inquiries the new philosophy labors to explain by searching out 
their cause, and thus designs to give man a reasonable insight 
into the strange, though common, facts of natural life, as well 
as the successive changes and regular motions of the planets 
and their central guide. 

The new philosophy plainly recognizes the truth that a most 



Current Thought — Scientific and Ethical 281 

proper study for man is the world in which he lives ; that 
nature exists for man, and that his material progress is, on the 
one hand, crippled by ignorance of natural things, and on the 
other, hastened forward by a sound acquaintance with the objects 
of touch and sight. A first and prominent aim, therefore, which 
this system of thought has in view is to improve and enlarge 
man's knowledge of the natural world. The thought of today 
in its scientific aspect examines nature, not for nature's sake, 
for this would be absolutely foolish, but for man's sake. It 
means to put into his possession the precious treasures of knowl- 
edge infolded in natural things, to teach him how to handle the 
objects constantly under his eye, and to stimulate his intellect 
to definite and practical effort. It assays to be the faithful 
interpreter of nature in order that man, the superior organism 
of the universe, may learn how to deport himself in the wisest 
manner amid the sportings of eternal phenomena, and make his 
way most speedily to that consummation for which he is destined 
by natural law. As the expounder of facts, it claims to include 
all the knowledge which can concern the human mind. The 
high purpose of its effort, therefore, is to impart this needful 
knowledge. And this education it deems the pearl of greatest 
price. How to live is the essential question. The general 
problem, as one says, which comprehends every special problem, 
is the right ruling of conduct in all directions and under all 
circumstances ; how to treat the body ; how to treat the mind ; 
how to manage our affairs ; how to bring up a family ; how to 
behave as a citizen ; how to utilize all those sources of happiness 
which nature supplies ; how to use all our faculties to the 
greatest advantage to ourselves and to others ; how to live com- 
pletely. This being the greatest thing needful for us to learn 
is by consequence the greatest thing which the thought of today, 
in affording broader natural knowledge, designs to teach. 

It at once proceeds to gather up the results of thorough 
experiment and special observation, and to make deductions with 
reference to the every-day life of man, and by this means seeks 
to find the basis for all reciprocal duties and the leading motive 
for action. 



AGNOSKO— I DON'T KNOW 

Gentlemen of the Literary Club: 

I VENTURE to invite your attention to a most profound 
subject. It is the chiefest of all subjects. The affirmation, 
"I don't know," denotes a living question. It is the problem of 
the ages, the endless study. The human mind has ever been busy 
to find a clear and definite solution. It has pressed into service 
every agency of its knowledge — science, philosophy and theology. 
And yet today it is both certain and uncertain. It knows and 
it does not know. Assertion and counter-assertion are pitted 
one against the other in our own time as before. The conflict 
of judgment still goes on and is more intense, I am of the opinion, 
than previously. In all probability it will continue down through 
the ages unto the last day. The vigorous and profound dis- 
cussion of this age will no more finally determine the issue than 
that of past times. One thing, however, it will do, and of this 
we should be quite observant : it will settle the question for our- 
selves. This is the most that any age can do, namely, solve to 
its own satisfaction the problem raised. 

And what is the problem of highest moment before the 
present generation, the problem that will absorb the acutest 
thought of the twentieth century? I answer, the problem of 
human knowledge. It is not entirely new or peculiar to our day. 
In divers forms it is a long-time question — as to substance ever 
the same, as to mode intensely variable. 

During the ancient period of human thought the leading 
inquiry was, "What do I konw?" In modern times, the search- 
ing question is, 'What can I know?" Three subjects, and only 
three, concerning which we exercise our knowing powers are 
given ; God, man and the natural universe. I can and do know 
positively, nature. I can and do know positively, man. Can and 
do I have true knowledge of God? In short, is God knowable 
by me? 



Agnosko — / Don't Know 283 

What is it to know? An answer given is, to be conscious 
of an object. How does this consciousness arise? Through 
contact of myself with that which is object to myself. By means 
of this contact there results a union of self with that which is 
over against self — a finding out of something as object, together 
with another thing as subject. In other words, the unity of 
conscious mind with the material given for knowledge, this is 
knowledge. No knowledge without an object; no knowledge 
without a subject. The two taken together, subject and object, 
constitute knowledge. In this unity of subject and object there 
is a positive knowing of the object by the subject, not of the 
object as it is by itself, but under the conditions according to 
which the mind acts in the process of knowledge. Human knowl- 
edge, consequently, is knowledge of the relative only. 

Accordingly, it is maintained by some that the thinkable 
alone is the knowable. The thinkable is the relative. Hence 
only the relative is knowable. This means, according to the 
theory of some, that man and the natural world alone are sub- 
jects of our knowledge. God, since He is absolute Being, is 
not only unknown, but the unknowable. The claim put forth and 
emphasized is that the unconditioned, the infinite, is beyond the 
range of possible human knowledge. This is Agnosticism; and 
the advocates of the theory are called Agnostics. This class of 
thinkers is not confined to any particular order of men. The 
Agnostic in his belief is not always a skeptic or an infidel. He 
is here a leading Churchman, there a Christian philosopher, as 
well as a disbelieving scientist or a thorough-going man of the 
world. Agnostics are in the Church as well as outside ; they are 
religious as well as non-religious. On the possibilities of human 
knowledge they agree with one exception, namely, that of know- 
ing the absolute, the infinite, the eternal, in short, the Being 
independent of the limitations of the universe — of this existence 
they with one accord maintain it is impossible to know anything 
positively, adequately. 

Agnosticism, hence, is the philosophy of the limits of human 
thought. If God exists, we cannot know Him; if He does not 
exist, of course the impossibility is the same. The final result 



284 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

is to shut ourselves within the boundaries of the natural, and 
the problem of inquiry becomes in the end the problem concern- 
ing man. What is he ? Is he the product altogether of natural 
forces working through an endless process of evolution, or the 
workmanship of an eternal, personal God whom we know and 
in whom we believe? 

The question before us, let it be carefully noted, is the 
problem of human understanding. On this point, for one thing, 
the view has been set forth that all our knowledge is derived from 
experience. "There is nothing in the intellect which was not 
previously in the sense," is the dictum of the long-famed phi- 
losophy of Sensationalism, whose first apostle in modern times 
was John Locke. Sensations are the prime elements of our 
knowledge, and out of these are manufactured all complex ideas. 
Knowledge in consciousness is, hence, knowledge only of appear- 
ance. Such was the teaching of David Hume, who said, "For 
my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, 
I always stumble on some particular perception or other of heat 
or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never 
can catch myself without a perception, and never can observe 
anything but the perception. In truth mankind are nothing but 
a bundle of different perceptions which succeed each other with 
inconceivable rapidity, and are in a perpetual flux." 

In this deliverance of David Hume is given a philosophy of 
human consciousness which confines all possible knowledge to 
mere appearance. Phenomena are all we know. Even self, of 
which we so often speak, is only a collection of sensations. This 
is the only reality we cognize. Beyond this is the region of the 
eternally unknown. Phenomena alone are ever in consciousness. 
Beyond these we know nothing. The Humist, if asked whether 
mind or matter or the supernatural exists as reality, answers, 
"I don't know." Behind these appearances of the sense some- 
thing is, but what it is I cannot tell. It is beyond the possibility 
of my knowing powers to determine. The known and knowable 
absolute of this philosophy is the totality of world phenomena. 
Of the infinite existence behind the phenomena it knows nothing 
whatsoever. It is an Agnostic. 



Agnosko — / Don't Know 285 

In harmony with the foregoing theory of knowledge is the 
critical philosophy of Immanuel Kant. Both agree that our 
understanding is of the phenomenal only. They differ in the 
view taken of the factors which enter into the constitution of our 
knowledge. For instance, Sensationalism teaches that percep- 
tions consist simply of impressions as received. The critical 
philosophy, on the other hand, insists that every phenomenon 
consists of two elements, matter and form. The latter, namely, 
the form, is that which the mind contributes. But the matter 
of a thing is always conditioned by the plan of it, which is the 
form, or, as Plato says, the idea. Hence every fact or phe- 
nomenon appearing in consciousness is determined to be as it 
appears, not by that which is external to the mind, but by that 
which belongs to the mind itself. Consequently our perceptions 
of things are not perceptions of the things as they are independent 
of the forms which the mind imposes on them. They are in 
consciousness, and it is there only that we know them under 
limitations. They are conditioned by that which pertains to the 
perceiving mind. Hence that which is known in consciousness 
as fact, whether it be a perception whose material is received 
through the senses, or a thought which is the combination of 
ideas, is there under the form which is conditioned by the 
principles or laws which inhere in the very constitution of the 
human intellect. To illustrate: Yonder is a pile of lumber, 
stone or brick. But it is only a pile. It is no organized some- 
thing. When, however, this unorganized heap is received by a 
builder and subjected to a definite plan, there presently stands be- 
fore your view a house. The material given was conditioned, 
put under limitation; that is to say, the various elements were 
brought into relation with one another according to the prin- 
ciples which determined the plan. The result is not wood, stone, 
brick, but a house — an object which is the unity of these elements, 
a unity made possible and realized only by the employment of 
certain principles which give rise to a definite form. Sensations 
like wood, stone and brick are prime elements. In themselves 
considered they are not knowledge. It is only when they are 
brought into unity or unities that they are knowledge. But this 



286 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

unity is effected by the mental agency acting according to prin- 
ciples which are conditional, first, for all perceiving; second, 
for all conceiving; and third, for all reasoning. These prin- 
ciples belong not to the sensations, but to the mind. Sensations 
furnish the material, principles the form for all phenomena in 
consciousness. Knowledge is, hence, the unification of the two. 
It is not one or the other taken separately, but the two taken 
together. 

Experience in consciousness is knowledge. This is re- 
solvable into two elements, one given by sensation, the other by 
the principle of mental action. These principles make possible 
and condition all experience. Sensations without the principles 
are meaningless ; principles without the sensations are empty, 
and hence illusory. Knowledge is, therefore, of the conditioned 
only. There can be no science of the unconditioned. 

And now, if the question be raised, Can we by thought alone 
extend our knowledge beyond experience of sense? Is knowl- 
edge of the supersensible possible? the reply of the Agnostic 
must be a decided "No." 

Accordingly, if it be inquired, Do we know an external 
world as it is by itself, and do we know the thing itself? the 
answer is : "By no means : we know it only as we perceive it, and 
not as it is independent of our perception. We know it as 
limited by the conditioning principle of our minds, and never as 
a reality entirely objective to us. Of its existence, hence, we can 
furnish no proof. At most, this must remain as mere assumption. 
On the other hand, we are equally unable to disprove its inde- 
pendent objective reality. Whether it actually exists or does not 
exist, we cannot establish by any process of argument. As to 
what it is, believing that it does actually exist, we are evermore 
unable to say. It is unknown and unknowable. Ideas, as regu- 
lative principles, are valid only for the objects given in experience. 
Beyond that they have no significance. They are not real things, 
nor can it be made to appear that there are existences which 
realize them. They are for the mind only and beyond that have 
no meaning." 



Agnosko — / Don't Know 287 

Now, we have the idea of a Supreme Being. It is a neces- 
sary idea: necessary, however, only in the sense that the human 
mind without it could not secure the highest systematic unity 
of its knowledge. To gain this end it is of service ; beyond this 
it means nothing. It in nowise points to an actual Supreme Being 
existing as an external objective reality. As a fact of knowledge 
the critical philosophy knows no God as a real existence. Its 
God is a Supreme Being in idea, that and nothing more, and 
this idea is merely necessary to the human mind for conducting 
its operations in the highest unification of all possible material 
of its knowledge. If this philosophy be asked whether God 
actually exists and what He is, it says: "I do not know. I 
cannot know. To me He is unknowable." 

We have the idea of God, of the most perfect Being. Can 
the objective reality of this idea be established by proof? Can 
we, in other words, demonstrate the being, existence and nature 
of an eternal, personal God, who is the realization of our idea? 
The critical philosophy answers, "No !" Each of the forms of 
argument is shown to be insufficient. The most we get is a 
world-builder, a wise architect, but not an Author and Creator 
of the universe, supreme in every way. The critical philosophy, 
consquently, knows no personal Absolute, and lays down as its 
final conclusion that such knowledge is entirely impossible. 

In addition and in this connection, it is to be observed that, 
on the question that I am discussing, much is made of the doc- 
trine of the relativity of knowledge. All our knowledge, main- 
tains the critical philosophy, is relative. We know not things 
themselves, but their relations. But since these can be known only 
under certain conditions, and these conditions are fundamentally 
space and time, that which transcends them is out of all possible 
relation, and therefore must necessarily be excluded from the 
list of the knowable. 

The Kantian philosophy, in its speculative aspect, is the 
philosophic source and arsenal of modern Agnosticism. All 
possible human knowledge, speculatively considered, is of the 
limited, the relative. The Absolute, as a real existing personal 
God, as well as in its impersonal form, is no subject for human 



288 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

knowledge. It must forever be relegated to the realm of the 
unknown and unknowable. When interrogated on this most vital 
and all-absorbing question concerning the transcendent, the eternal 
One, speculative reason must always answer, "I don't know." 

Although the critical philosophy judged that, by a profound 
analysis of the human understanding, it had forever exploded 
the philosophic doctrine of the Absolute, nevertheless the human 
mind could not rest content with the conclusion, "I don't know." 
In a little while after the publication of the Kantian Metaphysics, 
a numerous host of philosophies of the Absolute arose, each in 
its own way claiming to furnish both a true and exhaustive 
knowledge of the One and All. These philosophies with high 
boastfulness and without any hesitation or fear of mistake, tell 
us what the Absolute is. They enunciate positive knowledge. 
One says it is mind; another, it is matter; another, it is 
neither mind nor matter, but their identity ; a fourth, it is 
thought; a fifth, it is will; a sixth, it is the unconscious; a 
seventh, it is force. These theories are all reducible to one con- 
ception, namely, Pantheism. Each resolves everything into one, 
and then turns about and deduces a universe of existence from 
the one which is the Absolute of the system. In nature, con- 
sequently, there is no distinction between this universe and its 
Absolute. The one can be taken for the other. 

The moment, however, we recall the showing of Hume and 
Kant concerning what we know, namely, phenomena in their 
relations, all this boastful claim of the philosophies of the Abso- 
lute falls to the ground. The universe, concerning which they 
are so wise, and their Absolute, are, after all, sheer phenomenal 
existence, neither of which transcends the limitations of human 
knowledge. Hence, in itself considered, the Absolute of Panthe- 
ism is utterly unknown, and has truly been styled by Herbert 
Spencer the Unknown and the Unknowable. 

Spinozism, or, as it is called, Absolute Pantheism, insists on 
this position as the only one allowable. No attribute can be 
predicated of the Absolute, because predication always means 
limitation. We dare not say it is mind, nor can we say it is 
matter. We must be satisfied with utterly refraining from any 



Agnosko — / Don't Know 289 

assertion other than to declare it is nothing, the infinite nothing, 
which simply means in this case the absence of any possible 
conception. This is, of course, the most extreme Agnosticism, 
and signifies that by what God is, namely, absolute impersonality, 
no understanding of this Absolute ever can be had. 

And yet, with all this, Spinoza is everlastingly telling what 
God is and what God is not. Remarkable ! The human mind 
is able to know what the Absolute is negatively! To do this 
unerringly requires peculiar insight, enormous ability. It must 
be able to traverse the whole field of conceptions, and at the same 
time to discern that no one of them can be applied to the Infinite. 
Why not say at once, and be done with it, that man possesses 
the faculty of cognizing the supernatural, and that is why he is 
able to discuss the question of the supernatural, and why it is 
to him the subject of most absorbing interest? What makes 
possible human science? Surely the faculty for such achieve- 
ment. The animal is not a scientist and never can be. The 
human mind, if it could perceive only phenomena and connect 
them together in experience, would never be able to produce a 
science of this experience. But it can systematize the facts of 
its knowledge ; it can cognize or apprehend principles. It knows 
truth. This power of knowing elevates it above the natural, and 
makes possible for it a knowledge which otherwise it could not 
have. Man has in him the supernatural ; under finite form, 
it is true, yet really the supernatural. And it is on this account 
that he is able to discuss the great question of the existence and 
nature of the eternal God, as the history of human thought affords 
proof. In spite of the limitations of sense and knowledge, he 
is, nevertheless, competent to transcend these limitations, and 
truly know Him who is independent of the world, and who, at 
the same time, finds it possible to make communication of Him- 
self under the conditions which obtain for the human mind in its 
knowing. The God who exists is knowable. 

This we say, first, because of what He is — a personal Being, 
who from possibilities of His nature has created a universe, and 
while He transcends this universe, still is in and through it, its 
life and overseer ; second, because of what man is — a creature, 



290 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

a personal existence, bearing the image of God, and thus capaci- 
tated to receive communication from his Creator; third, God is 
knowable because an experience is rendered possible and is actual, 
by virtue of the fact that man possesses a supernatural capacity. 
In this experience God, who is absolute love, can be and is found 
and known in the truth of His being. And fourth, God, under 
the conditions rendered actual by virtue of what He is and what 
man is in the constitution of his rational nature, is known by 
revelation of Himself in the natural world, and above all by 
revelation of Himself through the manifestation of Jesus Christ. 
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, 
has given the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. 

As another has said: "God cannot be found in His majesty 
— that is, outside of His revelation in His Word. The majesty 
of God is too exalted and grand for us to be able to grasp it. 
He, therefore, shows us the right way and says, 'Believe in me 
and you will find out what are my nature and will.' The world, 
meanwhile, seeks in innumerable ways, with great industry, cost, 
trouble and labor, to find the invisible and incomprehensible God 
in His majesty. But God is and remains to them unknown, 
although they have many thoughts about Him and discuss and 
dispute much ; for God has decreed that He will be unknown 
and incomprehensible apart from Jesus Christ." 

Again, God is not the absolutely incomprehensible God of 
philosophy. He knows and comprehends in His knowledge Him- 
self. He makes Himself relatively discernible and comprehensi- 
ble to the creatures made in His likeness. It has been well said 
that to apprehend a being is to know it in its relations, and if 
it did not pertain to the nature of God to enter into relations, 
to make Himself intelligible, He would not have revealed Him- 
self. Human theories and speculations commit the error of sup- 
posing that pure Deity is better than God, the living God, who 
reveals Himself in a variety of ways. 

While, therefore, we claim positive knowledge of Deity in 
our searching His depths, still it is always to be said of us : 
"No man hath seen God at any time, seeing that He dwelleth in 
light unto which no man can approach." 



Agnosko — / Don't Know 291 

And now, to sum up : I have shown, first, what Agnosticism 
is ; second, on what its claims are founded ; third, considered 
the validity of these claims ; fourth, have called attention to the 
fact that the God who actually exists by virtue of what He is, 
namely, personal love, and by virtue of what man is, can and 
does enter into relation with His rational creature in such way 
that a revelation of Himself is truly given. In this relation, 
which He has pre-eminently established in Jesus Christ, He 
makes Himself known in the fullness of His nature. In con- 
sequence we have a true, though not a complete and perfect 
knowledge of Him, that is, face to face, but a knowledge which 
is true in principle, true in its tendency, and true in the goal at 
which it aims ; true, too, because it goes out from and leads back 
to God. Human reason, left to itself, is agnostic. From the 
nature of the case it could be no other. But human reason 
furnished with the revelation of the Absolute, the personal, liv- 
ing God, knows Him as its Creator, Preserver, Redeemer. In 
the revelations of the carpenter's Son it comes in contact with 
Him, and apprehends Him in the truth of His nature — what He 
is in Himself and what He is to the human soul. Philosophic 
agnosticism is Atheism. The teachings of the Nazarene are 
Christian theism. In these teachings we have the only true and 
final philosophy of all things, the true Gnosis, the right knowledge 
of God and His ways. 

The human mind, when left entirely to itself, must always 
say concerning God, His nature and His true relation to the 
universe, "I don't know !" When, however, it is enlightened by 
the revelation of the living, personal God in His Word, it can 
always declare, with glad assurance, "I know." 



THE GREAT PROBLEM 

Gentlemen of the Literary Club: 

THE subject of this paper is, as announced, "The Great 
Problem." What is a problem? The answer, stated in 
general terms, is, "A question proposed for solution, decision or 
determination." Or the matter may be put in this way: Given 
certain principles or facts or realities, to determine by their com- 
bination a true result — that is, another principle or fact or reality. 
The given principles or facts or realities are the necessary con- 
ditions for the attainment of the end proposed. For example, 
the life germ of the acorn and the ground in which it is buried 
are the necessary conditions for the production of the oak tree. 
The natural force which ever tends toward the centre, and the 
one which moves constantly in the opposite direction, are the 
necessary conditions for the earth's passage in its orbit. Their 
combination gives us as a resultant a well known fact. 

Every problem states certain conditions by means of which 
the answer is to be found. There are problems of divers kinds, 
such as the problem of knowledge, "What can I know?" The 
world problem, "To what must the facts of nature be referred 
as their source ?" The problem of the mind, "What is the nature of 
the human soul? and what are consciousness, intellect and will?" 
The problem of conscience, which deals with the principles of 
right and wrong in their origin and nature. The social problem, 
which has to do with the right relation of individuals in society, 
their mutual obligations and responsibilities. The industrial prob- 
lem, which concerns the best interests of the capitalist and laborer 
in combination. The commercial problem, which considers the cor- 
rect methods and principles of trade and commerce and how best 
to use them. The problem of government, which inquires after 
the greatest good of all citizens. The problem of human history, 
which concerns itself about the attainment of the best civilization. 



The Great Problem 293 

And finally the religious problem, which deals with man's rela- 
tion to God. 

This enumeration is not an exhaustive statement of all the 
questions which attract and hold the attention of the human 
mind, but merely furnishes an outline of the almost numberless 
problems which in the centuries past have stirred, and are now 
stirring, the thoughts of man. The problems I have stated are 
the chief questions concerning which the men of today busy them- 
selves. I do not mean to say that all men are seeking a solution for 
all these problems, but I do mean to say that, while some are 
devoting the strength of their best powers to searching out a 
final answer to one class of these problems, the other part of 
mankind are bent on finding a satisfactory solution of another 
class. Questions relating to society, to the individual sphere, to 
business and to government are very popular; they are living 
questions, or, in the parlance of today, up-to-date. They occupy 
intensely the attention of the masses. 

And, gentlemen, should I not add religion to the list of pro- 
foundly interesting problems? I think so. With all the hurry 
and push and struggle and conflict of the times, the people do 
have many thoughts concerning questions of religion, and in one 
way and another they are earnestly trying to satisfy themselves 
with some sort of a solution. Whether in the Church or out of 
it, they do have many serious thoughts about God and how to 
be in right relation with Him. 

However, be all this as it may, the age is, nevertheless, 
striving with all its might to find and possess the highest good — 
what it conceives to be the highest good. This means that it is 
putting forth its utmost endeavor to solve the problem of human 
life. How far it will be successful and advanced beyond a like 
attempt of its predecessor, is to be shown by the future. I have 
to do this evening, not with any of these questions pertaining 
to the human sphere, nor with all of them as such, interesting 
and vital as they are, whose discussion would easily gain your 
vigorous thought. I have before me a problem far more com- 
prehensive and fundamental than the concerns of this world. 
It may fitly be styled the great problem, not only because it is 



294 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

all-inclusive, but also because its answer lies in the final cause of 
all existence. 

What is this problem? Let us see. Take, if you please, 
any object, such as a stone, analyze it, and you get as a result 
an indefinite number of stones. Each of them taken separately 
is not the stone, but all taken together make the object so known. 
Their union constitutes its existence. Or select any natural ele- 
ment, such as water, and the same truth by chemical inspection 
is manifest. Or take specimens of the vegetable and animal 
kingdoms, and a like result is found. The same holds with 
respect to the structure of our globe, of our solar systems and 
of all the systems taken together. Natural existences are unities, 
unities of different orders, it is true, and of gradual ascent, 
but still actual unities, the many in one. Astounding diversity 
of elements, yet all in unity — this is, the material universe. 

Note additional illustrations. Knowledge, what is it? You 
say it is composed of two elements, subject and object — the 
knower and the thing known. Very true. No subject, no 
knowledge; no object, no knowledge; but subject and object in 
unity — this gives knowledge. You call yourself a business man. 
Business, your business, what is it? An analysis, I think, will 
show three factors ; yourself, your shop with its material, and 
your fellowmen. Now you are not your business, your shop 
is not your business, neither are your fellowmen your business. 
You must have something to sell to somebody who will buy, else 
you are not a business man. Business for you is yourself, the 
product of your shop, and your fellowmen as consumers, all taken 
together. It is, hence, a unity. Human life, what a complex 
reality! How many elements of different order, coming from 
every quarter and from above nature, enter into its make-up! 
Your life — what a diversity of factors as you live it every day 
form its composition ! It is ever a unity, an advancing unity. 
And human history — what diverse agencies and powers unite in 
its production ! Ever going forward, ever tending toward a 
larger unity. History is progress, but progress is the process 
of unification. Human history as a fact is a unity, a unity of 
natural and experimental powers constantly advancing to a 
wider scope. 



The Great Problem 295 

And now, I think sufficient illustration has been given to 
make plain that the unity of all natural things is an existence. 
It might yet be added that man in his existence is the unity of 
the rational and irrational elements of the entire universe. He 
is the highest creature. He stands at the head of all things that 
have been made. His existence is the unification of the two 
worlds, the natural and the spiritual. And these two worlds 
make up the whole universe. Man is, hence, the unity of the 
universe. He solves the question, "Can the rational and irra- 
tional be united?" This is the great problem. Its answer is 
fundamental. But it is solved, and its solution we see and know. 
Because man is, the universe is. 

But the final question is, Can God and man, or God, man 
and the natural universe, be united in such a way that their most 
perfect unity will be an existence, a personal existence? I said 
a moment ago that man is the unity of the universe. But man, 
if he is anything, is a person ; therefore the unity of the universe 
is a personal existence. But the highest of all unities, the unity 
of all realities, cannot be less than the one which is next to the 
highest; and therefore the final unity, the unity of all realities, 
must be a personal existence. 

This, then, is the great problem, namely, the highest possible 
unity of God and man, or God, man and the natural universe. 
The unification of all things, how can it be realized ? . Given 
God, man and the universe, to determine their unity; or, to put 
the question in another way, if God, man and the universe are, 
how is their perfect unity to be attained? That this unity must 
be, the human mind has always insisted. With nothing less is 
it satisfied. 

True, there is a view of long-time origin that holds this 
unity impossible. It is the theory that there are two eternal 
contradictory principles, the good and the evil ; the first is spirit, 
the second matter. They are in irrevocable antagonism, and there- 
fore maintain an endless dualism. Their unity is impossible. 

With this theory the human mind has never been satisfied. 
It cannot tolerate the thought of perpetual separation and oppo- 
sition between spirit and matter. It demands that they be joined 



296 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

together in such a way that they will be one existence and one 
life. It seeks to resolve the dualism of matter and spirit. How? 
In three ways: First, by assuming that matter produces spirit, 
and this is the theory of materialism ; second, by holding that spirit 
produces matter, and this is the theory of spiritualism; third, 
by claiming that matter and spirit are different phases in the 
manifestation of one and the same being, which in itself is 
neither the one nor the other. 

According to the first view, matter is the only reality. What- 
ever seems to be different from it is only a peculiar form of its 
manifestation. According to the second, spirit is the only reality. 
According to the third, a something which is neither matter nor 
spirit, and consequently unknown and unknowable, is the only 
reality; all else is a mere seeming, an illusion. These three 
theories are expressed by one word, Pantheism. All things in 
essence are either matter or spirit or the identity of the two. All 
existences are resolvable into one substance or energy, and this 
one is their unity. 

If, now, it be inquired, How are the many objects constituting 
the universe produced ? the answer is by the process of evolution. 
By this process one existence and another, and so on indefinitely, 
rise into reality; in short, the universe exists. But the evolution 
is that of absolute matter or spirit or their identity; hence the 
universe is the mode of the existence of the absolute substance 
or energy, be that what it may. Therefore the universe is God 
existing. But since the evolutionary process is Deity rising into 
existence perpetually, this process is the supreme, the only reality, 
and God existing is the eternally becoming, the eternally evolving, 
yet never completely evolved. And now, since the universe is 
Absolute Spirit or Absolute Substance in a state of eternal evo- 
lution, they are not two, but one. There eternally exists, and by 
necessity, the most solid unity; that is, the universe; that is, 
God ; that is, the One. It also follows, accordingly, that God is 
in and through all things, for He is all things. As another cor- 
rectly says : 

"The God of Pantheism is not like that of Deism, outside 
the world, but within it, its life and soul, present in everything 



The Great Problem 297 

that is or that lives; in the clouds and winds, in the leaves of 
the trees, and in every blade of grass, in the bee and bird, en- 
dowing them with skill to build their cell or nest ; in man inspiring 
him with lofty thoughts and noble purposes." 

No doubt Pantheism possesses a real fascination for many 
minds. It seems to answer triumphantly the pressing and great 
question of the unity of all things that are, and to secure in the 
fullest measure the everywhereness of God, the indwelling of 
Deity in every object of the universe from the smallest to the 
greatest, so that every act and movement are God's movement 
and act, and every thought is God's thought. He is all 
cause; He is all eye; He is all everything. As Wordsworth 
says: 

"For I have learned 
To look on nature, not as in the hour 
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes 
The still sad music of humanity; 
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power 
To chasten and subdue. And I have felt 
A presence that disturbs me with the joy 
Of elevated thoughts; a sense of the sublime, 
Of something far more deeply interfused, 
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, 
And the round ocean, and the living air, 
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man; 
A motion and a spirit that impels 
All thinking beings, all objects of all thoughts, 
And rolls through all things." 

And yet, in the last analysis, the Pantheistic conception is 
not satisfactory. The God in whom it would have us believe 
is a derived Deity, who, in His original state, is destitute of 
perfection. He is only a slumbering thought or latent force. 
He does not know Himself; He does not know anything, and 
whatever He does, He does because He must. He is the im- 
personal, the "It," not the "He." Pantheism repudiates an 
eternally self-conscious, self-determining, personal God, and sub- 
stitutes instead a Deity that acquires consciousness and self- 
consciousness and personality, so called, along the course of an 



298 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

eternal evolutionary process, ever advancing toward absolute 
perfection, but never reaching it. In this theory the individual 
man as such has no immortality. His destiny only is and can 
be swallowed up and lost at last in the ocean of infinite being, 
impersonal and unconscious. The fault of Pantheism is not 
with the logic of the system, but with its original proposition 
which is: There is one substance, one absolute substance, and 
of it no quality can be predicated. 

In handling the problem before us it, consequently, changes 
the terms God, man and the universe by identifying them in 
essence, and, of course, then it easily gets all the unity it wants. 
Indeed, it has it from the beginning; as much of it then as at 
any time afterward. All real distinction between God and the 
universe is obliterated. They are always one, and, according to 
the principle of this system, must be. 

I do not object to Pantheism because it insists on the most 
complete unity of God and the universe, but I do object to the 
way that it apprehends this unity. For the sake of this per- 
fection I am not ready to surrender my belief in a personal, 
living God, who, while He is in and through the universe, its 
life and the one in whom we live and move and have our being, 
nevertheless is, at the same time, independent of the universe, 
and in His existence transcends the universe, and who, before 
the world was created, was Himself absolutely self-conscious, 
knew Himself and the possibilities of His being, and who, out 
of these possibilities, chose to bring into existence the universe 
which now is ; who, Himself a moral Being, has brought into 
existence, by the exercise of His free power, man, a creature of 
a moral nature as well as physical, to whom He can communicate 
His own fullness, and with whom He can unite Himself in the 
most perfect way ; so that, while God and man become one, they 
are yet distinct, and each maintains his own individuality. I must, 
therefore, insist that the kind of unity which the Pantheist con- 
ceives as existing between the eternal God and man is not the union 
which satisfies the deeper convictions of the human soul, and af- 
fords a truly personal communion. Personal communion, observe, 
is the communion between persons. But the God of Pantheism is 



The Great Problem 299 

not a person. He attains personality in me, in you — that is, our 
personality is His personality. He is dependent on us for being a 
person. It is plain that communion with this God can never be 
more than communion with ourselves. A God with a personality 
such as Pantheism allows can never be to us in our needs, our 
distresses, in the yearnings and longings and thirstings of our 
hearts, more than Baal was to his prophets in their anguished 
appeals for help. 

The question, therefore, plainly is whether God and man, 
each a distinct personality, can exist together in such a manner 
that the union will not be an individual soul united with God, 
but a man in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. 
This kind of union Pantheism declares to be impossible. It is 
not conceivable by human thought. It belongs to the miraculous, 
for which no allowance can be made in any philosophic religious 
scheme. 

Some moments ago we observed that the unity in question 
must be an existence. To this Pantheism assents, and holds that 
it is the universe. But since man, the unity of spirit and nature, 
is a personal being, the union cannot be impersonal, but a personal 
existence. In other words, the two natures, human and divine, 
must be united in one person. In this union there is afforded 
the most intimate communion between God and His personal 
creature, the communication of the fullness of the one to the 
other, and in the midst of all the most glorious revelations of 
the perfection of the Divine Being. God is no longer unknown 
and unknowable, but truly apprehensible in the truth of His 
existence, and of His relation to the world and man, as Paul 
declared on Mar's Hill. Human thought has failed to solve the 
great problem of the three realities in such a way as to give 
permanent satisfaction. 

Must it then be given up? So far as the human mind is 
concerned, yes. It remains with God alone to give the solution. 
This He has done in the person of Jesus Christ, who is the 
divine-human personality, and exhibits humanity at the climax 
where man is one with God and God is one with man. Christi- 
anity is the revelation of this sublime achievement. It alone 



300 Selected Sermons and Addresses 

furnishes us with the knowledge of how the solution is effected 
so that human nature remains human nature and divine nature 
remains divine nature, and yet these two have one life, neither 
human alone, nor divine alone, but divine-human. 

This is the life that man lives with God, in which he is one 
with Him, or both are one. The solution exhibited by Christi- 
anity alone answers the eternal purpose of human existence, 
whatever be the condition of man. This purpose is the most 
perfect union between God Himself and His creature, man, and 
stands unchangeable, no matter whether the human creature main- 
tains his original integrity or whether he becomes sinful. This 
most perfect union, Christianity holds, is realized in the Only 
Begotten Son of God made flesh. Here God, man and the 
universe are one. 

But the human creature sinned, and became opposed to the 
divine holiness; nevertheless, the eternal purpose of human 
existence, a creature to whom God could and would communicate 
His fullness most freely, abides and cannot fail of perfect realiza- 
tion. Christianity assures us that God is now in Christ recon- 
ciling the world unto Himself. Where is He doing this stu- 
pendous work? In the perfect union of God and man, that is, 
in Christ. 

And, lastly, this same Christianity proclaims that God 
hath "made known unto us the mystery of His will, according 
to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself ; that, 
in the dispensation of the fullness of time, He might bring to- 
gether in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and 
which are on earth ; even in Him." 

And this is the only solution of the Great Problem. 



VI 
BIOGRAPHY AND TRIBUTES 



VI 
BIOGRAPHY AND TRIBUTES 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

THE following biographical sketch was written by Dr. David 
H. Bauslin, Dean of Hamma Divinity School, shortly after 
the death of Dr. Ort, and was published in the Lutheran World 
of January 11, 1911. It is accurate as to details, and is the 
fullest sketch of Dr. Ort's life available at the time of this 
writing : 

"Rev. Samuel Alfred Ort, D. D., LL. D., a most dis- 
tinguished citizen of Springfield, Ohio, an illustrious son of 
Wittenberg College, a scholar and a preacher of great renown 
in the Lutheran Church, is no more. He was born at Lewistown, 
Pa., November 11, 1843, and entered peacefully into his rest at 
his home in Springfield Friday night, January 6, 1911, at the 
age of sixty-seven years, one month and twenty-five days. When 
he was but a boy of nine years, his parents moved to Hagerstown, 
Md., where later he spent four years in the Academy of that 
city. It was in the summer of 1860 that he entered Wittenberg 
College, from which he graduated with highest honors, receiving 
his Bachelor's degree in the spring of 1863. While a student at 
Wittenberg College he became a Christian, and on February 16, 
1862, united with the First Lutheran Church, under the ministry 
of the late Dr. Morris Officer, and with this Church he kept 
his membership until he was translated to the Church triumphant. 

'After graduating from the college Dr. Ort, having chosen 
the ministry as his life's calling, entered the Theological Seminary, 
from which he graduated in 1864 with a class of six, all of whom 
have preceded him in death. He was ordained to the gospel 



304 Biography and Tributes 

ministry by Wittenberg Synod in the fall of 1865. After tutor- 
ing one year in the college, he was called to the First Lutheran 
Church of Findlay, Ohio. Here he remained as pastor but little 
over a year, when he accepted a position in the Hagerstown, Md., 
Academy, which position he filled until he was called to Witten- 
berg College in 1869 to teach English and fill the chair of Mathe- 
matics and Literature, which position he occpuied from 1869 
to 1874. 

"Great as Dr. Ort was as a teacher, yet he always felt that 
his special calling was the ministry; and so, when in 1874, the 
First Lutheran Church of Louisville, Ky., extended him a call 
to become its pastor, he accepted, and served this Church accept- 
ably for five years, and helped to lay the foundation for a greater 
Lutheran Church in that city. He then became pastor of the 
strong and influential St. James' Lutheran Church of New York 
City, which he served for eighteen months, and relinquished it 
only when he was again called to take up the work of teaching 
in his alma mater and to fill the chair of Sacred Philology. 

"After the resignation of Dr. John B. Helwig as president 
of Wittenberg College in 1882, the arduous task of leading the 
educational forces of the institution fell upon the shoulders of 
Dr. Ort, and he was called to become its fourth president. This 
position he filled with great credit to himself and with equal 
acceptability to the Church and college for nearly nineteen years. 
At the same time he occupied the chair of Dogmatic Theology 
in the seminary. In 1900 he resigned the presidency of the 
college, and was elected vice-president and also called to the 
chairs of Christian Theology and Mental Philosophy. The vice- 
presidency he held until the last meeting of the Board of Di- 
rectors, only resigning after the physical man was no longer able 
to work, though he continued to hold the chair of Christian 
Theology and Mental Philosophy till the end came. 

"Dr. Ort received the Master's degree from his alma mater 
in 1866, which institution also conferred upon him the degree 
of Doctor of Divinity in 1876. In 1893 Wooster University, 
Wooster, Ohio, honored him with the degree of Doctor of Laws. 
He was secretary of the General Synod in 1873, 1875 and 1877, 



Biography and Tributes 305 

and was elected its president at Omaha, Neb., in 1887. From 
1873 to the time of his death he was elected a delegate to every 
meeting of the General Synod. 

"During his pastorate at Louisville, Ky., September 23, 1875, 
he was married to Miss Ann E. Senteny, who has since also 
passed to her eternal reward. They are survived by their seven 
children, who are as follows: Mrs. S. Shaffer, Cannelton, W. 
Va. ; Mrs. Corinne Nolty, Springfield, Ohio; Dr. Wallace A., 
Springfield, Ohio; and Lucretia, Margarite, Elizabeth and Regi- 
nald A. 

"The funeral services were held January 9, 1911, in the 
Fourth Lutheran Church of Springfield, Ohio, and were in charge 
of his pastor, Rev. Clarence E. Gardner, D. D., assisted by Rev. 
Samuel E. Greenawalt, D. D. Addresses were made by President 
Charles G. Heckert, D. D., Prof. B. F. Prince, Ph. D., Prof. 
D. H. Bauslin, D. D., and Rev. Jacob Culler, D. D., then presi- 
dent of the Board of Directors of Wittenberg College." 

Thus a good man and a great passed away, mourned by all 
who knew him; and yet the heavens are radiant with the hope 
of reunion in a realm where sin, death and limitation can never 
intrude. 

Dr. Bauslin has this to say about his last days on earth : 

"To the last his powers of mind were quite unimpaired, and 
his progressive weakness did not seem to depress his exaltation 
and hopefulness. Often during his last days, in suffering, daily 
growing weaker, he bore both weakness and suffering, not only 
with unmurmuring patience, but also with an unfailing cheerful- 
ness that astonished his friends. Through the long decay of his 
physical powers, he not only displayed the strong affection of 
the devoted husband and father that he was, but also was always 
interested in the welfare of the Church he loved and into the 
service of which so many of his years had gone." 



306 Biography and Tributes 

TRIBUTES 

Prof. B. F. Prince, Ph. D., Wittenberg College: "Dr. Ort 
was always held in great respect and confidence by those who 
met him in the recitation room. He knew the subject in hand, 
and with a power of expression and earnestness of manner, he 
won the hearts of his students and led them to recognize the 
worth of the subjects they were pursuing. His lectures were 
fresh with thought and pressed home with an enthusiasm born of 
conviction. Earnest students secured what they wanted, and 
never forgot the instruction or the instructor. 

"No one who had frequent relation with Dr. Ort could fail 
to be impressed with his kindliness of manner and sympathy of 
heart. Many of his students have remarked on these qualities, 
and have held him in grateful remembrance for their exercise 
in their behalf. All could approach him, for they knew that a 
kind reception would be awaiting them in seeking satisfaction for 
their wants." 

Prof. V. G. A. Tressler, D. D., Hamma Divinity School: 
"He was born with an intellectual endowment such as not often 
falls to the lot of man. Largeness was the note of his make-up. 
As a teacher, his interpretations were on a broad, philosophical 
scale; as a preacher, his presentations outlined the whole scope 
of divine life and love; as a theologian, he traversed the fields 
of theological thought with an easy consciousness of both 
evangelical and speculative power. Most of all, there was 
largeness about him as a man, in his apprehension of the view- 
points of others. This precluded, in large measure, limited and 
one-sided views of men and things. It was this that made him 
the student's friend, as he was in essence the friend of man." 

Prof. Leander S. Keyser, D. D., Hamma Divinity School: 
"Last autumn (1910) was the last time we saw him. He was 
then bedfast, but was able to converse freely, and was hopeful 
of recovery. His great desire was to get back to his beloved 
class-room. So long had he stood before college and theological 



Biography and Tributes 307 

classes that this kind of work had become woven into the very- 
texture of his life. His passion was to teach, to impart instruc- 
tion; and who was ever better equipped by nature and culture 
for such a vocation? During the conversation he told us what 
was his favorite subject of meditation as he lay on his bed of 
sickness. This is what he said: T love best of all to think on 
the person and work of Christ.' What a theme for thought on 
a dying bed ! And he said it in such a way that we felt he was 
not thinking on Christ so much as a theme for speculation as for 
devout and happy contemplation and faith. Thus both heart and 
mind were centered rightly during those last months of suffering. 
And now that he has gone before, no doubt he has already had 
the beatific vision of the person and work of his divine-human 
Redeemer. What a light must have broken on his soul!" 

Dean David H. Bauslin, D. D., Hamma Divinity School: 
"He was a man of strong faith, and the Christian facts became 
the prime realities of his life. The central and living reality with 
him was Christ and His work of redemption. Few men placed so 
much emphasis upon the great theological principle of justifying 
faith. Few men have had such ability as he to think a philo- 
sophical or theological subject through. He knew how to hold 
a knotty problem in philosophy or divinity before his mind in a 
strong grasp, until he knew it and could divide it into all its 
parts. Few men could state truth with the lucidity and sim- 
plicity that were features of his strong productions. 

"It should be said of Dr. Ort that, with the passage of years 
and with his growing maturity, he came to be more and more 
ardently attached to the great Lutheran system of evangelical 
truth. More and more he advanced to an apprehension of the 
depth and fullness and richness of that apprehension of the 
gospel which is set forth in the theological treasures of our 
Church .... Of the Book of Concord he once said: 'The 
longer I live and the more I study, the more assured I feel that 
here is a system of theology that needs no revision.' It was said 
with an earnestness and a depth of sincerity that made a deep 
impression." 



308 Biography and Tributes 

Prof. Loyal H. Larimer, D. D., Hamma Divinity School: 
"It is difficult to estimate Dr. Ort's work and influence as an 
educator, a theologian and leader in the Lutheran Church. How- 
ever much we may cherish now what he did, as time goes on we 
will learn to value him still more highly. His life and attain- 
ments will grow upon us all — even those who knew him best 
and loved him most. He left upon his students and upon all 
who associated with him a deep impression of the reality and 
the abiding worth of spiritual things. A teacher can do nothing 
greater than that. His strong philosophical mind dwelt in the 
Holy Scriptures, which he read, studied and accepted with all 
simplicity and faith. He lived a life of communion with God 
through faith in Christ Jesus. His greatness was the greatness 
of faith and love and hope." 

Prof. J. L. Neve, D. D., Hamma Divinity School : "When 
the writer of these lines was called to teach in Hamma Divinity 
School (in the fall of 1909), he remembers distinctly that he 
came to Springfield with one special regret, namely, that Dr. Ort 
was declining in health, that his days seemed to be numbered, 
and that consequently the pleasure of laboring with him would 
be short. At the meetings of the General Synod (since Carthage, 
111., 1877, he had attended every one of them) it had always been 
so interesting to listen to this man with his powerful appearance, 
remarkable individuality and fine mind; with that wide sweep 
of view when he took the floor and expressed himself in such 
an attractive and terse mode of speech. How we craved the 
privilege of profiting by association with him! 

"But his work at Wittenberg was done. He tried to teach, 
but his weakened condition did not permit him to continue many 
weeks after the seminary opened. When finally for that winter 
and the next his branches had to be distributed among his col- 
leagues, it fell to our lot, according to the wish of the Faculty, 
to teach Dogmatics. Frequently, on our way to the class-room, 
we went to Dr. Ort and read our lecture to him, while he lay 
upon his bed. It was remarkable how everything in Dogmatics 
was present to him, and how strong his constructive powers 



Biography and Tributes 309 

were, when, merely in a conversational way, he began to express 
himself on these subjects. All of us regret that he did not leave 
a work on Dogmatics to the Church. When he spoke in such an 
incidental way from his bed, we thought many times : if only 
such conversations, as well as the lectures he gave to his students, 
especially during the last years, could have been taken down in 
short-hand and published; then we would have had something 
of abiding value. There would have been originality in it, with 
no detraction from the faith. 

"Some have said he was more of a philosopher than a dog- 
matician. True, he loved to approach the problems from philo- 
sophical viewpoints, but his results were always Biblical. And 
he was most childlike in his faith. Once in a conversation, when 
we had spoken of those who reject the supernatural, he said: 
'They will open their eyes when they get a peep into the other 
world.' Things unseen were settled realities with him. A man 
of such genius should never have been burdened with the busi- 
ness cares of an institution, but should have been able to give 
his whole time to academic and literary work." 

Prof. Charles G. Heckert, D. D., President of Wittenberg 
College : "The Lutheran Church of America will always revere 
the memory of the late Dr. S. A. Ort. He was a distinguished 
factor in the establishment of our great Church in the central 
west. He helped to lay broad and deep foundations for a fully 
developed Lutheranism in our land. His work as an educator 
and church leader marks him as one of the great figures in our 
evolution from a branch of the Church that rather loosely clung 
to a full confidence in our Confessions to our present hearty 
and unanimous acceptance of those same standards. 

"As president of Wittenberg College and as beloved pro- 
fessor in both college and seminary, he was a commanding force. 
His hundreds of students will never cease to be grateful for 
the inspiration of his class-room. All through the Church was 
felt the power of his strong personality as preacher, teacher, and 
conservative leader. His great heart had a warm place in it for 



310 Biography and Tributes 

all parts of our divided Church, and his labors were always of 
the type looking to ultimate unity. God gave him a vision, and 
he was ever true to it." 

Rev. Ezra K. Bell, D. D., Baltimore, Md. : "It was my good 
fortune to know Dr. Ort and to be intimately associated with 
him for more than thirty years. He was my teacher in college 
and my friend and adviser when I entered the ministry. His 
richly endowed mind, his profound faith, and his splendid 
Christian character gave him peculiar favor and influence. When 
he spoke, it was a rare privilege to listen ; when he wrote, it was 
in model English and purest diction. He was always genial and 
kind, and his students loved and honored him. He was a 
preacher of great power and of the purest gospel. He was a 
lovable companion and a friend who always rang true. He 
abhorred that which is evil, and was the persistent advocate of 
that which is good. He had a great love for his Church, an 
intelligent appreciation of her history and doctrines, and he served 
his generation with true fidelity and signal usefulness to the end. 
Church and school have had but few like him." 








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